The Herzliya municipality has petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court for a temporary restraining order. The municipality is seeking to prevent Kibbutz Yakum (collective settlement) and Yakum Development, which hold the rights to the new EuroPark industrial zone, from entering, occupying, and using the site for purposes other than its own industrial enterprises. Businessman Eliezer Fishman and Kibbutz Yakum own Yakum Development in equal shares.
The municipality asked for another temporary restraining order ordering the Hof Hasharon local planning and building commission to prevent the occupying and business operations in the compound by external businesses.
Judge Uzi Vogelman ruled that the restraining order could not be issued ex parte, and ordered the petition given to the respondents, whom he instructed to respond within 10 days.
The petition stated that the new Kibbutz Yakum industrial zone occupied 99 dunam (24.75 acres), which had been rezoned from agriculture to industry. The zone contained the enterprises owned by the kibbutz, which is advertising the new zone on its website, and marketing space for rent in the compound as a fully-fledged real estate enterprise. The site is advertised as a complex with four 3-4 storey buildings, each with 10,000-15,000 sq.m.
A visit to the site three weeks ago showed that two buildings, Beit Italia and Beit Zarfat, have been partially or fully occupied by companies that are not Kibbutz Yakum-owned industrial enterprises. This contravenes the Urban Building Plan (UBP), which states that only the industrial zone may be used only for kibbutz enterprises.
The petition adds that Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), which is not a kibbutz enterprise, is occupying space in Beit Italia. Alon Israel Fuel, Dor Energy, Dorgas, and Pizza Hut offices, also not kibbutz enterprises, occupy space in Beit Zarfat.
The municipality said it had recently learned that the owners of the rights to the industrial zone were currently soliciting companies, including firms renting thousands of sq.m. in the Herzliya industrial zone, to move from Herzliya to EuroPark, promising particularly attractive rents and low municipal property taxes. All this is on land rezoned from agriculture to industry.
According to the municipality, it appears that Beit Holland and Beit Sepharad, the other two buildings in the compound, have not yet been occupied, but can probably be occupied on very short notice.
The municipality asserted that if Herzliya is stripped of business and customers moving to the Kibbutz Yakum compound, hundreds of millions of shekels invested in Herzliya infrastructure to facilitate development there are liable to be lost.
Eliezer Fishman is a shareholder in “Globes”.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on May 4, 2003