Israeli law states that every person is entitled to know about city planning changes that will affect his life in the future. Time seems have stood still for that law, however, since its enactment in 1965: Announcements about building plans, sometimes crucial ones, in our neighborhoods or work environments are usually limited to microscopic notices in unclear language, published deep inside the newspapers.
Knesset members, the state comptroller, government officials and lawyers have been trying to improve this situation for years, via publications on the Internet or by the individual delivery of notices. But to no avail.
Residents of Zichron Ya'akov, take note: Amiri Zichron Ya'akov and Shikun Ovdim construction companies have applied to add a story to the residential project at "block 12128, parcels 28-30, lots 1017-1019."
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Neither the name of the housing complex nor the street appears in the notice. Want more information? You will have to go to the offices of the local planning and building committee in the Shomron. If this way of notifying the public seems improper to you, this is just one arbitrary example of hundreds of similar notices that appear in the back pages of Israeli newspapers, usually those with low circulation. In most cases the language is unclear, and the letters too small for the naked eye.
Here is another example. Last month, two daily newspapers and one local weekly published a notice that a plan had been submitted for TAMAK2550A, better known as Kikar Hamedina in Tel Aviv. The new plan has substantial changes: The shopping mall planned for the site has been cancelled, and instead of the three 29-story towers originally planned, there will be three 40-story towers, each 153 meters tall - about the height of the square Azrieli building. Not one economic newspaper carried details of these dramatic changes, until one of the plan's initiators sent a press release. Like the real estate sections of the newspapers, presumably the hundreds of property owners in that area and the surrounding neighbors did not notice the announcement in the newspaper either.
Anyone who thinks that the information in this type of notice is irrelevant to "regular" Israelis who are not involved in the real estate sector is sorely mistaken. From the moment such a notice is published, the clock starts ticking. Affected parties have just 60 days to file objections. After those 60 days have passed, it will be very difficult to convince anyone to stop to processing of the plans.
The Planning and Building Law (1965) states that any plan submitted to the committee must be accompanied by an announcement to the public in the press. In the 43 years since the law was passed, there have been stellar advances in information technology, but apart from one significant amendment to the law - that a sign must be erected at the site designated for the planning change - the law's framework has remained unaltered.
Hadash faction members Hanna Swaid, Mohammed Barakeh and Dov Khenin attempted to improve this situation last year, submitting a bill for the publication of planning and building notices on the Interior Ministry's Web site, which receives over 150,000 individual surfer visits a month. This bill, however, has yet to be presented to the Knesset for its first reading. "The growing use of the Internet in Israel and the convenient search methods offered by the Internet offer an opportunity to use the Web for publishing planning and building notices," stress the three MKs. "The publication of the planning and building notices in a special section on the [Interior Ministry's Web site]," adds Khenin, "will create a uniform locale for all such notices, in an appropriate [media] environment. Furthermore, the notices will be accessible for a long time, long after the small notices in the newspapers, which are published for only a few weeks, cease to be publicized."
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss also devoted attention to the public notification of planning and building changes.
"The State Comptroller's office," wrote Lindenstrauss in his February 2008 report, which focused on local authorities, "feels that the planning and building committees should aspire to offer the public with Internet sites that present as much information as possible on the committee and its activities, thereby providing transparency toward the public regarding the activities of the committee, and saving the public much time and effort."
The 20 municipal Web sites visited by TheMarker during the preparation of this article revealed that not one municipality uses its site to publish planning and building notices in keeping with the state comptroller's recommendation.
In March 2008 the Knesset Interior Committee held a meeting to examine the possibility of relocating the holiday resort planned for Palmachim Beach to inside Kibbutz Palmachim, in order to avoid harming the beach ecosystem. Environmental organizations argued that the tender for the construction of the resort was not conducted properly, as a large share of the population was totally unaware of it.
"There is insufficient transparency and public involvement in planning and building processes in Israel," said committee chair Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor). "Fundamental changes are needed in the manner in which planning and building committees publish notices to the public. The texts appear in small, dense print that is incompressible even to professionals."
"One has to be a professional, equipped with a magnifying glass, to read and understand the information that is published," says Shuki Amrani, who heads the Interior Ministry's central district. "The information issued to the public should be improved."
One large municipality approached by TheMarker regarding the possibility of being the first to publish planning and building notices on its Web site actually refused this option after careful consideration. The municipality's legal adviser said such publications would expose the municipality to law suits.
"The newspaper notices are paid for by the plans' initiators," said the adviser. "These are private enterprises that prefer the current format - small, obscure notices. These enterprises could file claims against the notices on the municipal Web site, on issues for which there is no legal answer.
"First, the Web site is a municipal resource," continued the adviser, "and such notices are for private purposes (even if they affect the entire public). Second, the law does not obligate publication via municipal Web sites. In many cases a plan's developers are not interested in the broad publication of their plans, and they might sue the municipality."
Attorney Nisan Sharify says that publication via the Internet is important, but an even better way to notify the public is compulsory individual notices to those affected. "I have encountered many instances of non-notification, which almost unavoidably result in legal proceedings that could have been prevented," says Sharify. "If landowners in the vicinity of a project were made aware of planning processes, they could reach understandings [with developers] during the planning stages, and reduce the load on the legal system." Attorney Tzvi Shoob, who specializes in planning and building cases, explains that the local authorities object to delivering individual notices, in order to avoid a different type of law suit - claims for compensation, mainly in cases of land expropriation of public works. "I figure that the local authorities are not interested in compulsory individual notices because the authorities know that compensation claims for land expropriation can be filed only within three years of the publication of a plan," says Shoob. "In many cases, land owner do not notice, time passes, and they can no longer file claims, and essentially lose money." Attorney Oded Israeli, another planning and building expert, stresses the importance of transparency regarding both public and planning and building authorities, particularly concerning land use.
"I would be happy if every person planning to close in his balcony announced his plans - but let's start with bigger things, such as the rezoning of agricultural land and expropriations for public works," says Israeli.
"The system has to change, with compulsory publication via the Internet or individual notification. When the city wants someone to clean up his property because it is polluted, city officials know where to find the owner and personally hand him a notice - so why is this not the case when the land is slated for expropriation, or a tower is being planned, that would infringe on the neighbors' rights?" asks Israeli.
The Planning and Building Law was enacted in 1965. Over the years it has been amended, and its clauses have been sharpened. The law states that a building plan must be publicized in two daily Hebrew language newspapers - "at least one of which is widely distributed" - and in one local weekly paper. In areas where at least 10% of the population speaks Arabic, the notices must be published in one Arabic and one Hebrew national newspaper, and in one local paper. About two years ago the law was amended, requiring developers to erect signs on the land for 60 days from the date the plans are published. In many cases, however, the area is large and the proper location of the sign is unclear.
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