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General Plan for East Jerusalem: the State of Public Spaces and Future Needs

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General Plan for East Jerusalem: the State of Public Spaces and Future Needs General Plan for East Jerusalem: the state of public spaces and future needs (DRAFT) International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC) UNDP CRDP project February 2016 East Jerusalem General Plan International Peace and Cooperation Center East Jerusalem General Plan International Peace and Cooperation Center List of Appendices Appendix A Population Data ........................................................................................................... A-1 Appendix B Education Additional Information .............................................................................. B-1 Appendix C Health Additional Information .................................................................................... C-1 Appendix D Open Spaces Additional Information .......................................................................... D-1 Appendix E Community/Cultural Additional Information ............................................................. E-1 Appendix F IPCC Existing Work Additional Information ............................................................. F-1 Appendix G Schedule of Existing Public Facilities......................................................................... G-1 Appendix H Schedule of Potential Land for Development ............................................................. H-1 Appendix I Priority Projects............................................................................................................ I-1 List of Figures Figure 1 East Jerusalem Neighbourhoods and Zones .......................................................................... 8 Figure 2 East Jerusalem North Zone.................................................................................................... 9 Figure 3 East Jerusalem Centre Zone ................................................................................................ 10 Figure 4 East Jerusalem South Zone.................................................................................................. 11 Figure 5 General Plan Methodology .................................................................................................. 13 Figure 6 % Population compared to % classes provision .................................................................. 17 Figure 7 Existing education facilities in East Jerusalem ................................................................... 19 Figure 8 Potential land plots for developing educational facilities in East Jerusalem ....................... 24 Figure 9 Existing health facilities in East Jerusalem ......................................................................... 26 Figure 10 Potential land plots for developing health facilities in East Jerusalem ............................. 28 Figure 11 Existing open spaces in East Jerusalem ............................................................................ 30 Figure 12 Potential land plots to develop open space in East Jerusalem ........................................... 32 Figure 13 Existing community and cultural facilities provision in East Jerusalem ........................... 34 Figure 14 Potential land plots to develop community and cultural facilities in East Jerusalem ........ 37 Figure 15 Potential and for development in East Jerusalem .............................................................. 40 Figure 16 Privately Owned Potential Land Parcels Map ................................................................... 41 Figure 17 Priority Projects ................................................................................................................. 43 East Jerusalem General Plan International Peace and Cooperation Center Executive Summary The aim of this project was to create a database cataloguing existing public facilities in East Jerusalem as well as developing a general plan of the possibilities available for public facility development. Mechanisms and planning tools were identified for how best to develop these areas for the benefit of the Palestinian residents. This work will assist interested agencies to target and optimise their future investment in the development of public spaces in East Jerusalem. Palestinians in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods suffer from a lack of proper access to public facilities. Almost 39% of Jerusalem’s residents are Palestinian, yet the Jerusalem municipality allocates only 10% of its services to them. It is difficult to obtain planning permission for public facilities which is another reason development of these facilities has not been able to keep up with the needs of the community. To date, no comprehensive survey of existing public facilities in East Jerusalem exists. This complicates planning, as it is important to know the numbers, locations, and status of such facilities in order to properly plan an area’s development. This report addresses this issue by presenting the state of East Jerusalem’s current health, education, open space and community services as well as what steps are necessary to improve these facilities and continue development in these neighbourhoods. The benefit here is two-fold. Firstly, upgrading, rehabilitating and constructing public facilities / civic buildings in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods will encourage and enhance community and economic development for these Palestinian communities; secondly, involving these communities in a planning process helps to delay or freeze demolitions of residential and commercial real estate, safeguarding against the loss of economic potential and livelihoods. The existing facilities survey and corresponding needs assessment confirm the widely acknowledged lack in provision. Maps of the survey information were produced alongside the analysis and they also indicate the deficit in provision is greater in the southern and central neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem compared to the northern neighbourhoods. Therefore, it is important to target development in these regions to support the communities there and give equal opportunities for growth and development. A survey of potential land parcels that could be developed to enhance the public facility provision in was also conducted. Various categories of land were considered including parcels with authorised public plans, parcels with a community agreed plan but not authorised and parcels with an IPCC plan. The development of projects on Municipality land would face a lengthy and challenging planning process and so these options should be considered as long term opportunities. However, they should not be discounted as there is an overall lack of land potentials to meet the public facility needs. Instead, it is recommended that a long term strategy of lobbying the local authority is developed with combined efforts from the international community and local stakeholders so that currently vacant Municipality land can be used to meet the urgent needs of East Jerusalem residents. In the short term, there would be fewer barriers to approaching private land owners to develop future public facility projects and these projects could be implemented in a much shorter timescale. An extensive process of engagement with private land owners was undertaken and owners who are interested to pursue projects of this nature were identified. This was combined with an analysis of the most urgent needs and a list of priority projects for immediate development was drawn up. Page | 4 East Jerusalem General Plan International Peace and Cooperation Center 1.0 Introduction This report documents the work done by the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC) to create a General Plan to support the development of public institutions and facilities in East Jerusalem. The project was funded by UNDP PAPP and took place between January and September 2015. 1.1 Project Aim The aim of the project was to create a database cataloguing existing public facilities in East Jerusalem as well as developing a general plan of the possibilities available for public development. Mechanisms and planning tools were identified for how best to develop these areas for the benefit of the Palestinian residents. This work will assist interested agencies to target and optimise their future investment in the development of public spaces in East Jerusalem. Key outputs include: 1) Survey of existing public facilities in East Jerusalem including GIS map database and schedules 2) Survey of potential land for public development in East Jerusalem including GIS map database and schedules 3) Identification and prioritisation of specific projects to develop public facilities in East Jerusalem The work was carried out in parallel with the local community. Workshops were held to raise awareness about the importance of benefiting from public parcels and local input was sought to suggest development projects that would fulfil the needs of the communities. 1.2 Background Palestinians in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods suffer from a lack of proper access to public facilities. Almost 39% of Jerusalem’s residents are Palestinian (396,812 out of 1,017,522)1, yet the Jerusalem Municipality allocates only 10% of its services to them. East Jerusalem residents often lack food, water and other basic services, and many commute through onerous checkpoints every day, greatly increasing travel times and making it difficult to arrive at work on time. Despite overcrowding, the lack of services and lack of employment, Palestinian residents are required to live within the city in order to keep their Jerusalem residency. This policy has brought more Palestinians
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