One of Tel Aviv's biggest new construction plans (TA/3700), which includes 12,000 housing units in the north of the city, has been delayed for a protracted amount of time at the stage where landowners' rights are being distributed.
It is currently becoming clear that because of foot dragging by the Tel Aviv - Yafo Municipality in applying the conclusions of research into the plan, there is real concern that the plan could be tied up in several more years of red tape.
TA/3700, also known as the "Northwest Quarter" includes 12,000 new housing units, 1,500 hotel rooms, 200 dunams (50 acres) of public buildings, and 215,000 square meters of commercial and office space. The plan was deposited for objections in 2010, and approved in January 2015 but has since been delayed for seven years and it now looks as though progress will be postponed for several more years.
"The plan will be postponed indefinitely"
Many of the opponents of the plan claim that a main principle in the outline plan for the district has not been kept: the concentration and pooling of unified landowners in specific lots, in order to prevent their fragmentation. The plan's researcher, the appraiser Lavana Eshed, who was appointed to examine the dozens of objections, determined that this could be "remedied" by correcting the tables - a recommendation adopted by the subcommittee of the local committee 15 months ago. However, so far this has not happened.
The Tel Aviv - Yafo Municipality said, "The balanced tables have not yet been finally corrected, and the municipality is working to correct them in accordance with the researcher's recommendations. The correction procedure is carried out by the plan's assessor, and requires many corrections which take time. After the corrections are made, the balanced tables will be published and presented in a procedure that will be carried out according to law."
"The corrected tables have not yet been prepared and it looks like they have again repeated the mistakes of the past, "said Adv. Miriam Donin Shoob of the Erdinast, Ben Nathan, Toledano & Co. with Hamburger Evron law firm, which represents hundreds of the landowners, who hold rights to 1,878 housing units in the plan. "After all the corrected tables will draw new objections, and we will go through the same process that we have been through so far.
"The ruling speaks of damage of 6% to the value of the land for each year of delay of a plan, and it is about land that is currently valued at about NIS 30 billion. Another seven years of waiting means that more rights holders will pass away, and more heirs will inherit their rights - and the picture will only get more complicated. This will make it even more difficult to implement the plan, and the fear is that it will be postponed indefinitely."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 22, 2022.
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