The 2017 annual "Globes" Real Estate Conference and the Israel Planners Association annual conference took place during the same week, and anyone involved in planning in Israel took an interest in them.
The meeting with Israel Planners Association chair Edna Lerman took place in her office in an old office building on Yigal Alon Street in Tel Aviv. Topics of conversation included the Lerman architectural firm's projects and the development of the planning profession. It all eventually converged; the projects in which Lerman was a partner are landmarks in the evolution of planning in Israel. From the perspective of her age and experience, Lerman took a cautious line, but nevertheless unhesitatingly criticized less positive trends.
Together with her husband Rafi, Lerman is a partner in the Lerman Architects and Town Planners firm. Founded in the 1970s, the firm engages in urban and rural planning on various scales. Lerman does not design buildings, but her husband is responsible for designing the Arison Campus of the Arts in Tel Aviv, the Ayalon Business Center Tower in Tel Aviv, the EuroPark site in Yakum, the visitors' center in Mitzpe Ramon, and other projects.
"Globes": What has changed in planning in recent years?
Edna Lerman: "Regulation has taken over planning. Today, with the help of our lawyer friends, planning has become orderly and structured, with regulations and blueprints according to a uniform planning structure. This is the right way to go, but in the current situation, the committees that judge the plans are addressing the form of the plan, not its content.
"One excellent example is informing the public. Informing the public is required for almost every plan today. There is ostensibly a very clear format with a defined number of meetings and a requirement to present the plan to an audience of participants. There are many problems here, notably the public that participates in the meetings. I'm not at all sure that it is representative. It is also questionable whether these meetings have any effect whatsoever on the planning result. I'm not sure about it. In many cases, it's lip service."
Many plans have been promoted through National Planning and Building Committees for Priority Residential Sites in recent years. What does that do to planning?
"The problem with the National Planning and Building Committees for Priority Residential Sites is not whether the plans are good or bad. I assume that every effort is being made to design high-quality plans. The problem is that the plans lack an overall perspective - a broad planning envelope. I mean that a general plan is needed that does more than solve an isolated problem. Today, it's the housing crisis, which will be followed by a transportation crisis and an employment crisis, and who knows what else."
What about the housing crisis?
"I feel that the system today provides a solution for urgent problems, and above all for the housing crisis. In practice, a solution for the national hysteria is needed. I'm not ignoring the need, but it can't be the sole factor. 20,000 more housing units in Rosh HaAyin, a bunch more in Petah Tikva, and enlarging Rishon Lezion - there's no consideration of how veteran cities deal with the processes of rapid growth, no metropolitan discourse."
What is the solution?
"National Outline Plan 35 provides an overall planning framework, but it has been exhausted. We're facing a glass ceiling - maximum use has been made of the existing frameworks. Israel's population will reach 12-15 million. A far broader plan is needed. What is being done today will also influence what happens in another 20 years, from the national level (transportation, energy, and deployment of open spaces) to municipal systems.
"It's by no means sure that the National Outline Plan tools can provide a solution to the needs. A plan is needed that will deal with planning strategy, one that provides a development route that covers all the levels and provides a solution for all sorts of scenarios. The connections with the systems surrounding us will be different, and there is no clear vision of the future. Thinking is lacking, and not just by the planners - broad and outside-the-box thinking involving various technological and futuristic factors - things that the planning system cannot provide."
What is happening in planning? We see a larger number of people studying and engaging in the profession.
"There is a clear erosion in the status of planners and architects. In the 1990s, when they devised the National Outline Plans, planning was highly regarded by the decision makers. When Arye Deri, as Minister of Internal Affairs, brought National Outline Plan 31 to the cabinet, he had an excellent understanding of the plan, and there were not many people in his way. Getting approval for National Outline Plan 35 was already difficult, because its power was already understood. The feeling is that today, planning is sometimes a factor that bothers decision makers because it does not allow them to provide for immediate needs."
What about the criticism of how planning is done?
"They talk non-stop about lengthy planning processes, complications, the damage to the economy, and that's true. Planning became bureaucratic because it reflects 'checks and balances,' and tries to make everyone part of planning. It has become a Frankenstein monster.
"The prolonging of the planning processes makes planning irrelevant. The goals have changed, and planning has become obsolete. Our planning tools are no longer suitable. The Planning Authority tried to simplify the processes, to provide a response, but the way it was done detracted from planning principles, which accounts for the bitterness about the shortening of processes. I have no answers. I think we have to work on developing new tools."
"1967 was the turning point in planning"
Edna and Rafi Lerman's firm is responsible for several of the most interesting plans in Israel: National Outline Plan 31 (Immigrant Absorption), National Outline Plan 13 (Coasts), National Outline Plan 14B (Mining and Quarrying Sites), District Outline Plan 5 (the Tel Aviv District Outline Plan), the master plan for roofing over the Ayalon Highway, the outline plans for Bat Yam and Kfar Qara, and more.
Rafi and you studied architecture, and today you do a lot more urban planning. How did this change come about?
"When we studied at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, the course was still called 'Architecture and Urban Planning,' but there wasn't much awareness of planning. Our teachers had no idea about planning. I remember that very few people signed up for MA studies, which had only just begun at that time, and that most Planners Association members were architects. 1967 was the turning point. After the Six-Day War, a new unknown land was opened up: the Golan Heights, the Sinai peninsula, and the Judean desert. It was the Israel Nature and Natural Parks Protection Authority that realized the need for planning. There were several people there, including Moshe Sela and Avraham Yoffe. They recruited Rafi and me to survey the Golan Heights, which later led to regional planning. It was our first job after our studies."
"Theories from Europe were unsuitable for Israel"
"The main people in charge of planning in Israel were engineer and urban planner Eliezer (Leonid) Brutzkus and architect and urban planner Artur Glikson from the Ministry of Construction and Housing. It was a very small group. Its members' education was based on European know-how with theories that were unsuitable for Israel. As I said, the turning point was after 1967. There was an attempt to study the land before doing any planning - to bring the territory to planning. Our work was based on familiarity with the land. Rafi was a tour guide; before studying at the Technion, he worked with his uncle, landscape architect Yosef Segal, and was a partner in planning the Hula and the Iyon Stream Nature Reserve, which is why the Nature and Natural Parks Protection Authority contacted us. After we drew up the plan for the Golan Heights, they asked us to formulate a plan for southern Sinai. We later moved to the Gaza Strip, and when the peace treaty with Egypt was signed in 1979, we redeployed in the Negev."
National Outline Plan 31 (Immigrant Absorption) was a milestone in the history of planning in Israel. Why is that?
"The cabinet approved the plan in 1993, after 18 months of preparation, which was an especially short time for a National Outline Plan. This was the first time that an outline plan had been prepared with an extensive professional team. We were the team leaders and the physical planners. Prof. Ezra Sadan, who was responsible for macroeconomic work, Prof. Baruch Kipnis (demography), and others worked with us. What was new about the National Outline Plan was the attitude to the effects of planning on the national economy and development. It was the first time that the needs of different population groups had been addressed: single mothers, Arab families. It was also the first time that the subject of the four metropolises was raised."
You attribute great importance to your many years of involvement in National Outline Plan 13 (Coasts). What is special about that?
"National Outline Plan 13 was a rescue plan, because it defined zoning for land, and balanced development against preservation of the coastal environment. We established 13 development areas, the 'anchors' - marinas and ports along the coast, and we invented the 100-meter area (in which construction is forbidden). That's when the wars started."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on February 27, 2017
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