The ministerial internal affairs committee has announced seventeen new sites for referral to the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites. In all, 50,000 housing units will be built on these sites. The main project for the expedited planning process is the South Glilot plan, which will be expanded by 70% in comparison with the plan promoted up to now by the Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Commission. 16,800 homes will be built on the site instead of 9,800.
The decision represents a dramatic planning step, meant to resolve the paralysis that has affected the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites for nearly two years, because of the fact that it operated under a temporary ordinance. "The last time that sites were referred to the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites was in January 2020," said Adv. Shlomi Heisler, chairperson of the National Planning Council. "There is therefore no doubt that the decisions approved by the ministerial committee today at the recommendation of the council that I head represent genuine good news for the public and another important step in dealing with the housing crisis, among other things by increasing the supply of housing."
The National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites is a legacy of Yair Lapid's term as minister of finance, and it was set up under a temporary ordinance that expired in May 2020. Its declared objective was "the efficient and swift promotion of construction plans for housing on plots of land declared by the government as preferred housing sites, in a special planning procedure that gives clear preference to development on state land." Three months ago, the ordinance was renewed, enabling the committee to resume its work, and the latest declarations of preferred sites follow from that extension.
The South Glilot site lies between the Ayalon Highway in the East, Road 2 in the West, the Ramat Aviv C neighborhood in the south, and Road 5 in the North. Various plans have been put forward for the site over the past twenty years, but became the subject of disputes, mainly within the government.
The version to be promoted by the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites will, as mentioned, increase the number of housing units on the site from 9,800 to 16,800. The plan is due to be processed rapidly for approval. Not everyone, however, believes in the ability of the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites to advance such a weighty plan in such a sensitive area in a shortened planning procedure. The first person to object to the declaration was Ramat Hasharon mayor Avi Gruber, who wrote to the Planning Administration a week ago: "Removing the planning of the land located in Ramat Hasharon from the local Planning Commission is a fundamental, hard blow to us as the local government."
Gruber expressed the fear that handing over the planning to the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites was intended to circumvent proper planning procedures, and that it was a case of a bad plan that did not take into consideration the value of the natural environment and infrastructure. From now on, Gruber and other objectors will have to deal with the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites instead of the local Planning Commission.
Other areas that the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites will deal with are the North-West of Binyamina, where construction of 1,500 homes is planned; the Israel Military Industries site at Tirat Hacarmel, on which 4,550 homes are planned as part of the first new neighborhood of Tirat Hacarmel on the West side of Road 4; and two plans in Beer Yaakov that will expand the settlement by 3,500 homes. Vacate and Build projects in Kiryat Yam and Kfar Sava have also been referred to the committee.
Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked said, "The declarations authorize the National Committee for Planning and Building Preferred Housing Sites, which has been enabled to return to work at full power by the temporary ordinance approved a few months ago, to expedite the approval of additional housing units and expand the supply of housing, a move that works in tandem with the new housing plan led by me together with the minister of finance and the minister of construction and housing. I shall continue to work to increase supply and to stabilize the housing market."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 9, 2021.
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