The settlement expected to grow by 40% within five years | First publication
The Efrat Local Council is promoting a plan to build about 500 new housing units, including in 15-story buildings. A protected housing complex is also planned. Council head: "A strategic move for the entire region."
The skyline of Judea and Samaria is on its way to changing: the Efrat Local Council is currently promoting the "Mordot HaZayit" neighborhood, within which residential towers reaching a height of up to 15 stories are planned for the first time in the settlement, alongside about 500 housing units, public institutions, commerce, and protected housing.
The new neighborhood will be built on the slope below the existing HaZayit neighborhood and will constitute a direct continuation of it. According to the council, the construction at the site is also intended to strengthen the continuity between the parts of Efrat, and subsequently the connection towards Givat HaEitam, where another significant expansion of the settlement is planned.
This is a significant change in the nature of construction in Efrat as well. While construction in the settlements of Judea and Samaria has been characterized for years mainly by relatively low-rise construction, buildings of 12 to 15 stories are planned in Mordot HaZayit. Thus, the neighborhood is expected to mark another transition for Efrat from a suburban settlement pattern to more dense urban construction.
At the current stage, about 500 housing units are expected to be built in the neighborhood as part of a broader move for the continued development of Efrat in the coming years.
The engineering challenge
The significance for Efrat is particularly great. About 14,000 residents currently live in the settlement, and the expansion of construction in Mordot HaZayit, alongside other neighborhoods that are in the planning and promotion stages, is expected to significantly increase the settlement's population in the coming years. The plan is to increase the population by 40% within five years, i.e., to about 20,000 residents, and to become a city.
Alongside the housing units, schools, kindergartens, synagogues, commercial areas, community facilities, and an urban park are planned in the neighborhood. One of the significant innovations in the plan is the establishment of a protected housing complex, intended to allow the veteran generation of Efrat to remain within the settlement and the community in which they live.
The planning of the neighborhood is not simple from an engineering perspective either. It is being built on a steep slope, and as part of the planning, special solutions were proposed for mobility between the levels of the neighborhood, including an elevator and a bridge that will connect its various parts.
The marketing of some of the complexes has already begun, and the council hopes to start development works during the next year, with the goal of advancing to occupancy in the coming years.
Beyond the addition of apartments, Mordot HaZayit integrates into a much broader move that Efrat is undergoing. The settlement, which was established in the early 80s and developed for years along a narrow axis south of Jerusalem, is currently in the midst of one of the largest waves of expansion in its history. Alongside Mordot HaZayit, other plans are being promoted, led by future construction in Givat HaEitam.
Efrat Local Council head, Dovi Shefler, said:
"The establishment of the Mordot HaZayit neighborhood is a strategic move that changes the face of the settlement and the entire region. We are not just building a future, but creating a new standard of quality of life and solutions adapted for the entire population, from the young generation of Efrat to protected housing for our founding generation."
