Adalah and the Coalition for the Advancement of Planning in Halisa Submit Report to Haifa Municipal Council for Neighborhood's Development
On 8 September 2005, residents of Haifa's Halisa neighborhood along with professional planning and public organizations submitted a report to the Haifa Municipal Council outlining their recommendations concerning the formulation of planning policies for the Halisa neighborhood. “The Coalition for the Advancement of Planning in Halisa” produced the document based on the conclusions of a planning workshop, in which coalition members sought to incorporate the residents' needs into the neighborhood's planned development. The report included recommendations that grew out of dialogues with Haifa municipal planning officials.
The coalition was formed after the Halisa residents' committee asked for assistance to submit changes to the municipality's plan for the neighborhood's development. The members of The Coalition for the Advancement of Planning in Halisa are: Adalah, the Halisa residents' committee, the Association for the Advancement of Halisa, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Bimkom, Adam Teva v'Din, Yadid, and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning (ACAP).
At the request of the Halisa residents' committee, the coalition initiated a workshop for residents to discuss their planning needs. The workshop opened with a session in April 2005, during which 60 residents of Halisa discussed the municipality's plan and outlined its multiple problems. Subsequent workshop meetings focused on the neighborhood's various planning issues, such as existing housing problems, features of future building, open space, public facilities, traffic and commerce. In order to get a clear view of the residents' needs and priorities, the meetings were conducted in several ways, including discussions at the neighborhood's club, a questionnaire distributed among the participants, and a tour of the neighborhood. In addition, the residents heard explanations of the planning process and were supplied with general information and tools for active involvement in future planning processes.
Located on the east side of Haifa, Halisa is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods. It was built before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and its geographical and architectural features give it a unique character. Halisa is built on a north-eastern inclination with a view of the Haifa Bay and is bordered on its north-western side by an impressive wadi (‘valley' in Arabic). Most of its buildings were built prior to 1948, and represent an architectural style particular to that era, which includes such features as the use of stone, distinctive entrance shapes and archetypal balconies.
From a socio-economic perspective, Halisa is considered a slum. As part as the project for "Urban Renewal," an urban building plan was prepared for the neighborhood entitled, "Plan for the Rehabilitation of Halisa" (HF/2017). Many objections were submitted on behalf of residents of Halisa against this plan, which was initiated by the Ministry for Construction and Housing and the Municipality of Haifa and submitted to the District Committee for Planning in 2001. As a result of the objections, the District Committee for Planning and Building ordered that its planners resubmit an amended version of the plan. The new plan, proposed by the Haifa Municipality, does not take into account several of the community's needs, such as open space and public facilities. The plan calls for massive expropriation of private lands, including private yards and gardens, in order to pave wider traffic roads. In most cases, the planned wider roads will reach the walls of houses in the Halisa and eliminate the residents' day-to-day open, exclusive, living space.
The report of the Coalition for the Advancement of Planning in Halisa submitted to the Municipal Council of Haifa takes into account the needs and planning goals of the neighborhood's residents.
Housing – The main position of the workshop participants on this matter is that the planning process must include the institutionalization of existing buildings, even if they are incompatible with the new plan's general orders for extensions of building. The position gives priority to extending existing housing units rather than adding new housing units. The neighborhood's new buildings are significant only if Halisa's residents are in a financial position to purchase the new apartments.
Open space – The residents emphasized the need for more open public space. The document suggests more public areas and identifies possible locations in accordance with the residents' needs and perspectives. However, the document also points out that the size of the available areas does not address residents' future needs. Therefore, the document argues that the municipality should allocate additional land for public use. It also recommends integrating open spaces and sports yards with the area in and around the neighborhood's school and open the area for public use. The document emphasizes that the municipality should improve the quality of the existing open spaces in the neighborhood.
Public buildings – The participants noted the lack of several public facilities and made several recommendations: (1) the construction of a building to house a new club for senior citizens and day-care center. The building would preferably be located near the neighborhood's center with good accessibility; (2) the integration of a youth club into the neighborhood school. Along with the surrounding area, which is designed for building expansion, the school and youth club will function as multi-purpose buildings, which will host after-school activities for the residents; (3) the development of a "kindergartens cluster," which could be housed in the old Emunah school building; and (4) the transferal of the neighborhood's mosque to the community and its possible future development to render it suitable for the community's needs.
Traffic – Most of Halisa's roads are one-way streets. The roads are designed to provide service to the neighborhood residents and are characterized by a low level of traffic. Therefore, the municipality agreed not to pave wider streets in order to avoid expropriating parts of existing buildings and yards. A municipal traffic advisor suggested a road plan based on principles of “traffic calming.” The coalition and workshop participants accepted this suggestion, but recommended that the municipality seek approval for particular traffic problems from the neighborhood's residents and property owners.
Additionally, the report recommends the creation of a plan to support pedestrian traffic by constructing multiple stair-pathways, which should include resting locations; that a reasonable solution is found for the parking of trucks in the neighborhood; the designing of routes accessible to vehicles for all of the neighborhoods' buildings; and that parking is arranged within the borders of the building's ground when a new building is constructed.
