Housing Project at the Weizmann Institute of Science

Here is a short report of the meeting the ``vaadat higui''.

Meeting of Vaadat Higui, august, 12

Present: Gad Kober, Niki, Yonathan, Shmulik, Aldo Shemesh, Alex Tsafriri, Israel Bar-Yosef, Eliezer Ronen, Daniel Zajfman.

  1. A report was given by Gad on the situation of the approval by the city of Rehovot for the general construction plan. There was a meeting last month at the city hall, where the proposed plans were rejected by the city committee (or the body which deals with such matter). The project of construction was rejected more because of non-related conflicts between the Institute and the city (such as the well known question:"Why doesn't the Weizmann Institute pay arnona?"), than anything else. Gad was supposed to have an additional meeting with the mayor of the city, who told him that there should be no problems, and the project will be approved. The next meeting of the city committee which is supposed to give the approval (in fact a recomendation, see below) for the construction project will be by the end of august, beginning of september. Gad expect the project to be approved at that meeting. Once the local committee approved the project, it will go as a positive recommendation to the regional committee (VAADA MEHOSIT). At that point, the project should be accepted by this committee, within 2 months, plus an additional 2 months of "afkada". Thus, it is now expected by the Institute, that the official approval of the project will be early 2000
  2. A discussion was made as to when we should start looking for a kablan. Yonathan and Shmulik quote a value of 2 months before starting the construction. Thus, if the schedule described in point (1) holds, we will should start looking in december.
  3. About 40 out of 50 plans are in Niki hands. There are few "problematic" (I would just call them different) cases, and it was decided to make a special discussion on these once we have all the material in hands. Niki will now start to work together with Yonathan and Shmulik on the accepted plans, in order to bring them to "real" construction plans.
  4. There was a short discussion about how the mifrat, which will be given to the kablan, will be setup. It was decided that Yonathan and Shmulik will first look at all the plans, and will make the best "average" out of the different models, so that the amount of changes that will be needed from the main mifrat will be minimum. An additional meeting will be set to clarify this point on a more practical basis.
  5. The question of how long does it takes to get the infrastructure of the town (i.e. the roads, the pipes under the roads, the level of the terrasses, and all what is needed before starting to build the houses themselves) was raised. Yonathan and Shmulik plans are for about 3 months of work. Gad agreed that it is possible to start this work before the final approval by the regional committee is given, but linked that to a certain condition (see point (6) below). Thus, it is possible to start the work in october (after the hagim...), and - if the schedule described in (1) holds - be right on time for starting the house construction early 2000.
  6. At this point, Yonathan, Shmulik and Niki leaves the meeting, and the signature of the contract was discussed. As pointed out in (5) Gad claimed that it possible to start the preparation (infrastucture) work now. However, in order to do this, the Institute requires that we sign the contract and pay the first payment (12.5 % of the lot price, about 21000$ for a 400 m^2 lot, assuming construction up to 180 m^2). A discussion took place as to what are the risks for the project not to be accepted by the city of Rehovot (or by the regional committee), and what would happen if the approval for the construction is delayed. Gad answers that everyone has the right to quit the project in march if nothing is moving until then, and the money will be paid back. A proposition (by the member of the vaada higui) was made to link the signature of the contract and first payment to the approval (recommendation) of the project by the city of Rehovot. Such a proposition will be submitted to the general assembly.

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