Mar 6, 2013
Idiotic plan approved to expand near-empty supermarket in RBS
The following email (text in red) was sent to the local neighborhood email lists...
*Bar Kol To Demolish RBS Shul To Make Room For Parking Spaces***
*NOTICE - Important Community Meeting*
*Your Attendance And Support Is Critical!*
Bar Kol is in the real estate business. Bar Kol is now working to add NIS 20,000,000+ to it's real estate portfolio on the backs of RBS residents - and a local shul! The Planning Board has tentatively approved plans (with the blessing of the Beit Shemesh Municipality!!) to add an additional two floors to Bar Kol?s Nachal Sorek store, that would bring the building height to 17 meters!
*The Jerusalem District Planning Board has agreed to accept the plans subject to a number of conditions that include:*
* *
? *Destruction of the shul across the street - next to Ezras Achim.*
? *Turning the parking spaces outside the shul into 19 vertical parking spaces to serve the commercial needs of Bar Kol. *
? *One side of Nachal Sorek will be turned into a bus lane. Private cars will be limited to one direction only:*
? If you live on Nachal Uriah, Micha, Lachish, Nachshon or Sorek you will be forced to drive all the way around to Ayalon to go down Nachal Sorek.
? Traffic on the already congested Nachal Sorek will be even more unbearable. Traffic on Ayalon will increase as private cars will need to find another access.
? *Trees in the surrounding area will be torn down*. Experience in RBS has shown that even when required to replant full grown trees, saplings are planted that wash away.
? *HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP THIS:*
A group of residents are organizing a unified opposition led by an experienced lawyer to represent our interests. We believe we can defeat Bar Kol - *WITH YOUR HELP*.
**IMPORTANT MEETING**
*When: *Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 at 8:00pm
*Where:* Ohr HaMeir, Nachal Lachish 2.
*We also need your contributions to support the costs of the lawyer, traffic consultant and related expenses. Every person and every shekel helps!*
I want to know who is being paid off to have this ridiculous plan approved.
A major road of the neighborhood, Nahal Soreq, is going to be turned into a one directional road for cars, with the other direction left for buses only, forcing drivers to drive around via the other side of the neighborhood in order to get to the other end of the road.
And they are going to knock down a shul (perhaps it was placed there illegally and thats why it was approved) to do it.
All this for the expansion of a supermarket that is practically empty at all times. Walk into Bar Kol any time of day or night, and you won't find more than a few customers.
Menachem Carmel, the owner of Bar Kol, has major investments in RBS C, along with heavy duty political connections - he was #7 on the UTJ party list in the 18th Knesset. He did not make it in to the Knesset, and before electiosn he was one of the leaders of the near-split of UTJ, which eventually was resolved peacefully. I do not believe this idiocy would have been approved without he or his people paying off someone in City Hall and using heavy political pressure. Who knows - maybe he even promised political support for the upcoming mayoral race to whomever was responsible for approving it..
I don't know what can be done, but the residents of the immediate area should definitely participate in that meeting and find out.
*Bar Kol To Demolish RBS Shul To Make Room For Parking Spaces***
*NOTICE - Important Community Meeting*
*Your Attendance And Support Is Critical!*
Bar Kol is in the real estate business. Bar Kol is now working to add NIS 20,000,000+ to it's real estate portfolio on the backs of RBS residents - and a local shul! The Planning Board has tentatively approved plans (with the blessing of the Beit Shemesh Municipality!!) to add an additional two floors to Bar Kol?s Nachal Sorek store, that would bring the building height to 17 meters!
*The Jerusalem District Planning Board has agreed to accept the plans subject to a number of conditions that include:*
* *
? *Destruction of the shul across the street - next to Ezras Achim.*
? *Turning the parking spaces outside the shul into 19 vertical parking spaces to serve the commercial needs of Bar Kol. *
? *One side of Nachal Sorek will be turned into a bus lane. Private cars will be limited to one direction only:*
? If you live on Nachal Uriah, Micha, Lachish, Nachshon or Sorek you will be forced to drive all the way around to Ayalon to go down Nachal Sorek.
? Traffic on the already congested Nachal Sorek will be even more unbearable. Traffic on Ayalon will increase as private cars will need to find another access.
? *Trees in the surrounding area will be torn down*. Experience in RBS has shown that even when required to replant full grown trees, saplings are planted that wash away.
? *HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP THIS:*
A group of residents are organizing a unified opposition led by an experienced lawyer to represent our interests. We believe we can defeat Bar Kol - *WITH YOUR HELP*.
**IMPORTANT MEETING**
*When: *Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 at 8:00pm
*Where:* Ohr HaMeir, Nachal Lachish 2.
*We also need your contributions to support the costs of the lawyer, traffic consultant and related expenses. Every person and every shekel helps!*
I want to know who is being paid off to have this ridiculous plan approved.
And they are going to knock down a shul (perhaps it was placed there illegally and thats why it was approved) to do it.
All this for the expansion of a supermarket that is practically empty at all times. Walk into Bar Kol any time of day or night, and you won't find more than a few customers.
Menachem Carmel, the owner of Bar Kol, has major investments in RBS C, along with heavy duty political connections - he was #7 on the UTJ party list in the 18th Knesset. He did not make it in to the Knesset, and before electiosn he was one of the leaders of the near-split of UTJ, which eventually was resolved peacefully. I do not believe this idiocy would have been approved without he or his people paying off someone in City Hall and using heavy political pressure. Who knows - maybe he even promised political support for the upcoming mayoral race to whomever was responsible for approving it..
I don't know what can be done, but the residents of the immediate area should definitely participate in that meeting and find out.
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Rafi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting. Please EVERYBODY show up for the meeting Tuesday night so we can work on fighting this lunacy.
The plan, though, obviously is not to expand bar kol itself. They want to add floors for something else. I've heard various rumors.
Either way, the traffic disaster and massive inconvenience that this would cause is completely outrageous.
Can we all go over and tear down the green-yellow monstrosity in the Park Hamerkazi and plant grass instead, at the end of the demonstration?
ReplyDeleteheard from resident who lives across from bar kol - they are planning to make a simcha hall there.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a parking nightmare in the making.
Rafi G, the owner of this web site opines thus: "And they are going to knock down a shul (perhaps it was placed there illegally and thats why it was approved) to do it."
ReplyDeleteIf a building (a shul in this instance) was "placed there illegally" why should that be a probable reason for its approval?
{Darth Zeidah now tries to put his right arm around the back of his neck in an attempt to show graphically, and in the manner used by his Israeli einikel, the illogicality of Rafi G's premise. Meanwhile, Rafi G emits a heavy sigh of frustration, wondering how on earth he allowed DZ to have commenting privileges in the first place!]
Darth - it is not necessarily a good reason, but I am trying to be dan lkaf zchut a bit and figure out why the largely religious city council, with a haredi mayor and the construction and planning department headed by a aharedi fellow would be willing to knock down a shul. Maybe it is illegal. I dont know that it is, but I cant think of another reason a shul would be knocked down by religious people for parking spaces.
ReplyDeleteAnd, if it is illegal, I can justify it. I dont know if it is right or wrong, but just because somebody grabs a piece of land and puts a caravan down (no matter how nice the caravan is) and turns it into a shul does not, to me, mean he has ultimate rights over it. If the land was slated for other things, the City does not have to be held hostage to every whim of any person who can afford a caravan.
Couldn't agree more, Rafi. But anyway, this sounds like a totally awful plan on its own merits, regardless of the shul.
DeleteI agree. the shul isnt the main issue. the plan is idiotic in general. knocking down the shul for this is just more shocking that it was approved by Iryat Bet Shemesh.
DeleteThe worst part of the plan, is making the road one-way for cars, which will put added pressure on the insanely overwhelmed traffic circle at the bottom of sorek-kishon. Particularly on Fridays, the cars get jammed up for a long way up Sorek and both directions along Kishon while school children cross the roads coming home from school. Total insanity!
ReplyDeleteThe shul has permits for that land, I saw them last week. Perhaps they did not build exactly according to the permits specification, I.e. a modular building instead of a concrete one.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, even if the beit shemesh municipality wants to destroy the shul, it is unprecedented that publicly owned land (i.e the shul location) be given over to a private individual so he can expand his private property. Something smells fishy.
The biggest outrage is the this entire process was already approved by the beit shemesh municipality and is now just waiting final district approval. Who in the municipality thought the community needs or wants this? Why was the community left out of this? Very sad.