SERVICING ALL
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coasts available for encouraging
these sports and related recre-
ational activities. The idea was
that water sports, like water ski-
ing, sailing and yachting, were
valid activities and they needed
their own space," says Valerie
Brachyd, planning director at
the Israel Environment Ministry.
The Plan 13 committee recog-
nized that the marinas needed to
> be near urban centers, given the
extensive infrastructure neces-
sary for water sports as well as
the financial investment involved
in such ventures.
What they didn't take into ac-
count, however, was that any de-
velopment, for whatever reason,
would be an obstacle to the nat-
ural development of the coastline.
"It doesn't matter whether it's
/ ports, marinas or docks," says
Gideon Almagor, a geologist with
the Geological Institute, "they all
stop the flow of sand northward."
With a marina, he says, one has
a deficiency of sand, but a new
balance is created. "You've lost a
strip of the coastline and also af-
fected the adjacent cliffs. It's a
domino effect. Yes, it's short-term
damage in terms of years, but
that's deceptive because all it
means is pushing the problem
northward."
The Environment Ministry's
Ms. Brachya says that the engi-
neers hired to explore possible
marina-related issues main-
tained that they knew how to
handle the sand flow issue, be-
lieving that the marinas' impact
would be localized with the on-
shore-, offshore-pull of the sea.
They assured the Plan 13 com-
mittee that there were no fore-
seeable problems that they
wouldn't be able to solve.
Another pressing issue was
how to finance the marinas' con-
struction.
Several board members felt it
should be a public investment,
Sand erosion
and public access
are the big
problems.
but the government bodies nixed
that thought.
The only other option was pri-
vate enterprise, which means cre-
ating attractive financial
opportunities for possible in-
vestors.
The first of the marinas, and
the guinea pig of the group, was
built in Herzliya.
Herzliya Mayor Eli Landau
was a major proponent of the ma-
rina development plan, especial-
ly on his home turf He compares
Herzliya's marina to the French
Riviera and the Italian coast, em-
phasizing a marina's advantages
for its adjoining community.
"What's good for coastal cities
in France, Turkey and Italy is
also good for Israel," he says. "We
have to invest in our country's
coasts. The Herzliya marina will
create 2,000 jobs. People will en-
joy shopping at the marina's
stores and boutiques, eating in
the restaurants, or just walking
around."
The funding for the Herzliya
marina came from private de-
velopers who paid for the S50 mil-
lion harbor in exchange for
receiving land on which they
built luxury apartments and va-
cation homes. The anchorage
area already houses 300 boats
and has room for an additional
500. Along Israel's Mediter-
ranean shore, there are 1,110
boats already anchored, with ca-
pacity for 2,100, not including
commercial ports or the Ashdod
port which, planners say, will
have room for an additional 600
boats when it is completed some
time in the future.
That's more than enough room
for the enormous increase in Is-
raeli yacht owners, Ms. Brachya
comments sarcastically, adding
that even if there had been
enough yachts or sailboats to fill
every parking space, the an-
chorage fees would still have only
covered the marinas' mainte-
nance expenses, but certainly not
the projects' overall costs.
The marina has become a
mass of luxury apartments; in-
tensive residential development
has taken the place of recre-
ational activities. But it's a far
cry from the water-sports stores,
surfboard shacks and board-
walks that some had envisioned.
"In the last two to three years,
two factors have become appar-
ent. One is the overconfidence of
the engineers who didn't take in
the overall picture when they ex-
amined the sand situation," says
Ms. Brachya. "The second is that
the water sports did not pick up.
Leisure and excursion boats
didn't become as common in Is-
rael as the second car."
In Herzliya, residents have
started complaining about the
state of their beaches and the En-
vironment Ministry has hired for-
eign consultants to analyze the
problem. Since then the situation
has stabilized, but it is apparent
that Herzliya's sand erosion isn't
just a localized problem. It is part
of a much larger, more general,
coastline problem.
In the meantime, the Ashdod
port and Ashkelon marina plans
are already in progress, despite
the same coastline-sand issues
which plague Herzliya.
Ms. Brachya acknowledges
- that it would seem prudent to
learn from the Herzliya project's
experience, but the marina plans
as established in Plan 13 have no
time limits and cannot be can-
COASTAL CONFLICTS page 72
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