ארלוזורוב מתחדש: הרכבת הקלה, מדרחוב ומאות דירות חדשותArlozorov Renewed: The Light Rail, a Pedestrian Street and Hundreds of New Apartments

Most residents of the district know Arlozorov as a central cross-town route they drive along, and in recent years mainly as a street closed off for construction. But the plan approved for the street goes well beyond laying a track.

The stated goal is to turn it into a street people walk along.

What the plan includes

The Arlozorov renewal plan treats the street as a whole: not only the rail route, but also the public space around it and the building rights along it.

How you widen an existing street

Here is the part that touches apartment owners along the street directly. To widen the right of way, the plan calls for expropriating the front setbacks within the plots, meaning the garden strips in front of the buildings.

The space that is freed up is designated for wider sidewalks and for bike lanes beside the track. In the eastern segment of the street, three additional paths for pedestrians and cyclists were also set, linking the back streets to Arlozorov.

The open ground floors become a retail frontage

This may be the most significant change to the experience of walking along the street. Many buildings on Arlozorov are built on pilotis (an open ground floor), meaning the ground level is open and used for parking. The plan designates this level for commercial use.

The chair of the Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Committee described the desired outcome as a street with generous public space, free of fences, with priority for pedestrian movement and light rail users.

The cost: the trees

Alongside the benefits there are also objections. Residents in the area approached the municipality asking it to consider halting the felling of trees caused by the light rail work on the street.