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The importance of pinui-binui (vacate-and-build) projects for resolving the housing shortage in Israel has spurred new legislation to resolve the problem of recalcitrant tenants, to define what constitutes a majority of tenants in such projects, and to regulate projects in neighborhoods comprised of detached houses.
After years of expectations, the government has approved the legislative amendments needed to promote “Urban Renewal” projects in Israel. While everyone is talking about the amendment lowering the threshold of consent for apartment owners to 66%, a lot more has also changed. All of the amendments, both major and minor, are important.
In urban renewal projects, residents or owner’s rights holders select the company with whom they are willing to embark upon this long journey, based on relationship of trust and competence. The trust required leads both parties to execute a binding agreement. Understandably, residents expect the company which whom they have contracted with to remain unchanged and not for those rights not to be transferred to other parties.
In a precedential ruling, the Tel Aviv District Appeals Committee affirmed the Regional Planning and Construction Committee’s decision that in cases in which a new zoning plan provides more rights than those set in the TAMA 38 provisions, the consent of all residents is required.
The National Committee for Planning and Construction has approved the Planning Administration’s initiative to amend the provisions of TAMA 35. The planned amendment will update the calculation method for the level of population density, from the number of residential units per square kilometer to the number of persons per square kilometer.
The Tel Aviv District Committee for Planning and Construction recently gave final approval for the Tel Aviv 3rd Quarter Plan, making possible the construction of 8,000 new residential units. The road to the plan’s final approval, a plan prepared in accordance with section 23 of TAMA 38, was long and filled with obstacles.
Givatayim intends to transform the city’s east with a series of “Pinui-Binui” projects to be built along Ben-Gurion Street on the city lines between Givatayim and Ramat Gan. In order to advance the plan, the Tel Aviv District Committee for Planning and Construction approved Givatayim’s request to prohibit the issuance of permits for TAMA 38 in the same area for a period of two years.
The National Committed decided, for the first time, to submit an urban renewal plan for the residential neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe in Rehovot.
The Tel Aviv District Appeals Committee recently set aside a building permit granted by the city of Tel Aviv to the owner of office space in a building designated for demolition under TAMA 38 who sought to convert the space to residential use.
The Appeals Committee for Planning and Building, Compensations and Betterment Tax in the District of Jerusalem held that family members who are not one economic unit are not a single family unit for the purposes of exemption from betterment tax in the expansion of an apartment of no more than 140 square meters.
The Tel Aviv District Court, presiding as an Administrative Court, rejected a petition filed against the District Appeals Committee for Planning and Construction and held that a structure that has not received a building permit cannot execute a TAMA 38 project. Per the court, the desire to reinforce buildings for risk of earthquakes is not intended to cure construction non-compliance and is not designed to “launder” buildings constructed without a permit
On July 24, 2017, the Sale Law Commissioner in the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing published two clarifications concerning the Sale Law and urban renewal projects.
In light of the complexity of urban renewal projects, and in order to promote further urban renewal, Israeli authorities have begun taking action to create mechanisms and implement changes to convince apartment owners and entrepreneurs that urban renewal projects are feasible and worthwhile.
The Ministry of Construction and Housing recently published a memorandum of law that prescribes a payment schedule for the first time that is specifically defined for urban renewal projects involving the addition of new apartments to existing buildings.
