A huge lawsuit by 108 landowners in Kfar Shmariyahu and the surrounding area for the confiscation of their land for the construction of Road 531 recently ended in a compromise approved by the Central District Court. Under the settlement, compensation will total $120,000 per dunam ($30,000 per acre), according to the representative shekel-dollar exchange rate at the time of the requisition - in April 2007, plus payment of linkage and interest from that date. In shekel terms, the nominal compensation is over NIS 20 million, plus linkage and interest. The landowners to be compensated include RAD Data Communications Ltd. controlling shareholders Zohar and Yehuda Zisapel.
The lawsuit, filed against Netivei Israel (National Roads Authority) and Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz, demanded compensation for the owners' privately owned land requisitioned from them for Road 531. It included the owners of over 112 dunam (28 acres), of which Netivei Israel confiscated 43 dunam (10.75 acres) for the road.
The legal proceedings pitting the landowners against Netivei Israel began already in 2006. The landowners, represented by Adv. Oded Israeli, who specializes in confiscations, filed an objection to Road 531, and later also petitioned the High Court of Justice to change the route and character of the road from an elevated road to and underground route. As a result of the objection, individual changes were made in the route, and the dispute between Netivei Israel and the landowners became one of compensation.
The requisitioned land was agricultural, but the compromise settlement was nevertheless one of the largest ever made between private landowners and the state, due to the land's location in one of the most expensive communities in Israel. The compensation took into account the future potential for rezoning the land for construction, which the landowners asserted had been reflected in many outline plans for the community, including the plan promoted by the local council, for which the chances of approval were high, although the plan was shelved because the land was requisitioned for construction of the road.
Adv. Israeli said that the compensation in the compromise settlement concerned only areas taken for Road 531. At the same time, legal proceedings are taking place between 100 private landowners, who filed a NIS 52 million lawsuit against the Kfar Shmariyahu Local Planning and Building Commission in respect of a plan rezoning their land from agricultural to a park.
"The reserves of land in eastern Kfar Shmariyahu, most of which are privately owned, has great planning potential," Israeli says. "The Kfar Shmariyahu Local Planning and Building Commission believed that the compensation to be paid for rezoning the area to a park would not be much, but the current judgment, which approved the settlement, sets the value of the land at $120,000 per dunam ($30,000 per acre). In some cases, actual plots are involved, some of which were confiscated for Road 531, while the rest of them were zoned for a park in the eastern part of the community. The Local Commission can't pay even a cent less in compensation for the remainder of the plot."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 7, 2014
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