Greens urge withdrawal of promenade tender

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Herzliya's Greens faction is calling on the city to cancel its tender for the building of a beach promenade and cliff-side elevator until court proceedings over the issue are concluded, reports www.local.co.il. But the city says it has no legal reason to withdraw the tender, which was announced in March, and wait for the end of the court case. According to the report, the Greens have appealed to the courts against the city's plans to construct a 22-meter high elevator tower and a 24-meter long bridge over the mouth of the Glilot River as part of its beach promenade project. The Greens say the plans are in breach of the law, as both the elevator and the bridge would be built less than 100 meters from the water-line, a protected zone that requires special planning permission after an environmental impact study. Lawyers for the Greens wrote to Mayor Yael German demanding the cancellation of the tender, saying it was contemptuous of the legal system to allow it to stand while the matter was still in court. The lawyers wrote that at the very least the city was obliged to notify those answering the tender that the matter was in dispute. City councilor and Greens faction head Dror Ezra said that advertising the tender while the matter was still undecided constituted an attempt to create "facts on the ground," and could cause serious financial harm to the city, for which those responsible should pay. A municipal spokesman responded that according to the city's legal adviser there was "nothing in the presentation of the appeal to prevent the advertising of the tender."