The Jerusalem Municipality recently allocated dozens of lots
for the construction of botei knesses and religious
institutions around the city. The move was made possible
following the success of Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky in
reactivating the Municipal Siting Committee.
The need to renew the committee's work came on the heels of a
High Court petition that cancelled apportionments for
botei knesses by the local authorities and required
the Justice Minister set new guidelines. Mayor Lupoliansky
then instructed municipal officials to hold joint meetings
with government ministries and to write complementary
guidelines including the new criteria, in order to reactivate
the committee as quickly as possible.
When the committee resumed its work, the Mayor issued a new
set of orders to the Religious Facilities Administration,
containing alterations in the City Building Plan regarding
the designation of lots not originally zoned for public
facilities. The zoning changes were necessitated by shifts in
the composition of the city's population, particularly in
neighborhoods once defined as secular.
The Mayor's directive also determined that organizations
would no longer have to alter the City Building Plan
themselves. Instead the municipality would initiate and fund
the complex procedure, estimated at tens of thousands of
shekels per request.
With the reactivation of the Locating Committee the
municipality called on various organizations around the city
to submit building requests. "The Mayor's directive," says
Religious Facilities Director Rabbi Yitzchok Hanau, "allows
the municipality to respond to requests from numerous
additional groups formed in neighborhoods throughout the
city, particularly in neighborhoods where the chareidi and
religious sectors have grown in recent years."
