High above the Refaim Valley, where chalky ridgelines have served as Jerusalem’s southwestern backdrop for generations, bulldozers will soon reshape the landscape. Reches Lavan – “White Ridge” – is poised to become the city’s largest new neighborhood in years, transforming 1,045 dunams of rocky hillside into a home for tens of thousands of people.
The ambitious project spans between the established communities of Ora and Aminadav, extending Jerusalem’s urban edge onto terrain that west-side residents have long treasured as their green backyard. When completed, this mixed-use district will house approximately 5,200 families while creating thousands of jobs – a small city unto itself perched on the hills.
Unlike Jerusalem’s sprawling bedroom communities, Reches Lavan is designed around mass transit from the ground up. The neighborhood’s central spine reserves space for a future light rail line, with multiple road connections ensuring that traffic won’t bottleneck through adjacent areas. Every internal street can accommodate buses, laying groundwork for a transit network that could transform how residents move around the capital.
This transportation-focused approach reflects lessons learned from decades of car-dependent suburban growth. Rather than building homes first and hoping infrastructure follows, planners are embedding mobility solutions into the neighborhood’s DNA.
The most contentious aspect involves the Ein Lavan spring system, whose waters have flowed through these valleys for thousands of years. Engineers promise that new flood-retention systems and careful drainage will protect the springs, even designating the source areas as permanent open space. Hiking trails and viewing areas will open previously inaccessible landscapes to the public.
However, environmental groups remain unconvinced. They’ve spent years fighting various iterations of the plan, arguing that any large-scale development threatens the ridge’s biodiversity and could dry up local springs. The current design represents their influence – earlier proposals had called for even denser construction.
The construction of a new neighborhood
The neighborhood’s urban form follows the natural contours of three main ridge spurs. Major parks nestle in the wadis, creating green corridors that connect hilltop housing to schools and community centers in the valleys below.
The phased construction schedule ties each development milestone to infrastructure delivery. No more than 1,400 families can move in before additional transit and parkland are completed. A second threshold at 2,500 occupied units triggers requirements for even more public amenities.
Kolker Kolker Epstein Architects designed the master plan as a unified landscape project rather than scattered housing blocks. The goal was to create a coherent hillside community that feels integrated with its surroundings rather than imposed upon them.
Behind the planning details lies Jerusalem’s acute housing shortage. Young families increasingly move to suburbs beyond the municipal boundaries, unable to afford apartments in established neighborhoods. Reches Lavan offers a potential solution: dense, transit-connected housing that could keep residents within the city limits.
The project includes 300 units designed for seniors, along with a 300-room hotel and extensive employment space. Planners envision residents working locally rather than commuting to farther job centers, reducing traffic while creating a more sustainable model.
The development has become a symbol in Jerusalem’s broader growth debates. Supporters see it as smart densification that couples housing construction with environmental protection and public transportation. They argue that the Ora Junction needs upgrading anyway, and Reches Lavan could turn it into a proper gateway to the city’s southwest.
Critics view it as unnecessary sprawl that threatens one of Jerusalem’s last unspoiled ridgelines. Some west-side residents worry about losing their “backyard,” while environmentalists fear for springs that have existed since biblical times.
The tension reflects Jerusalem’s fundamental challenge: accommodating population growth while preserving the dramatic topography that defines the city’s character. Other Israeli cities face similar pressures, but few carry Jerusalem’s symbolic weight or archaeological sensitivity.
The construction timeline remains uncertain, but preliminary earthworks could begin within months. The project’s success or failure will influence how Jerusalem approaches future development – whether the city can grow upward and outward without sacrificing the hills that have sheltered it for millennia.
For planners, Reches Lavan represents an ambitious test. Can transit-oriented design and environmental mitigation be effectively combined at this scale? The answer will reshape the future of the chalky ridges.
Early residents will inherit a neighborhood designed around principles rarely attempted in Israeli development: walkability, transit access, and integration with natural systems. Whether those lofty goals survive the realities of construction and occupancy remains to be seen. But for a city running out of available land, Reches Lavan may offer a glimpse of Jerusalem’s urban future.