Housing and highway planning in Israel: An environmental debate

The interrelated planning issues of housing and transport are subjects of controversy in Israel, as the country prepares for a population increase of 2.5 million by the year 2020. The debate is framed by the options for each-in housing, high-rise versus mixed-height building; for the proposed National Highway, its desirability and, if implemented, the route. The author urges a judicious mix of low- and medium-rise housing channelled toward the periphery of the country, rather than the high-rise, high-density concentration that government policy currently encourages. Closely tied to planning for housing, is the strategy to be used in timing the construction of the Highway segments and locating their interchanges. Changing the sequencing of construction of the proposed National Highway to begin in the periphery instead of in the densely populated centre, would encourage development in areas of greater land availability.