The 'North Jerusalem Residents for Safety and Quality of Life' Amuta found, through the help of their lawyer, that the dangerous Bike Path Project of the Jerusalem Municipality that has already caused a number of accidents and injuries, is being carried out without legal authorization. When asked, the Municipality confessed that the project does not, in fact, have a building permit. On top of that, the changes required by the Ministry of Transportation and the Laws of the State of Israel were not introduced to the תב''ע (Town Planning Scheme). Bike Paths are a new concept in Israeli transportation and constitute a 'substantial deviation from the planning scheme'. Such substantial change requires an emendation of the תב''ע (which is the legal plan that regulates the usage of land including streets) before being implemented.
The Municipality tried to defend the illegal execution of the project by claiming that it was a merely a 'Traffic Arrangement'. However, as was clarified in the Danziger Ruling in the High Courts about a week ago, a 'Traffic Arrangement' is used to solve a traffic problem in a specific location, and cannot be used to introduce a substantial change in the scheme of roads and streets. The Bike Path Project is a pilot program that is attempting to completely change the nature of the roads and therefore needs its principles to first be introduced to the תב''ע.
If there is no building permit, תב''ע or 'traffic arrangement', what is there? Unfortunately we have been left with a "Chelm" Plan that has not passed the legal procedures that would have prevented such a project from threatening the public safety.
It has come to our attention that on Sunday the illegal construction work will resume in the streets of French Hill. Stay posted to this blog to find out how you can help stop this disaster.
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