Former Supreme Court President Retired Justice Aharon Barak and his wife Elisheva refuse to allow their neighbors to build a porch over their Tel Aviv apartment garden, according to an appeal recently filed with the Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Appeals Committee after their application for a permit was denied by the local planning and construction committee.
The retired judge and his wife live in a garden apartment on Dubnov Street in Tel Aviv, in a multi-story building. The area of their apartment is 96 square meters, in addition to a garden of about 170 square meters adjacent to it. Above it are apartments with enclosed balconies.
About a year ago, an application was submitted to the Tel Aviv Municipality for a permit for 7 existing apartments in the back of the building, to add sun terraces with an area of 7 square meters each – above the garden owned by the retired judge.
However, Justice Barak objected to the request, arguing that the request deviated from the permit allocated to the building, and that “according to the calculation of the balance of the building rights for the balconies, only 3.12 square meters remained for each balcony in the 7 apartments.”
In his appeal, Barak referred, among other things, to the fact that the application for a permit is signed by less than 75% of the property owners in the building (the common property), so that the application must be deleted before the planning examination. “In these circumstances there is no point in using the planning test,” he argued.
The letter of opposition sent on behalf of Barak further stated that “the opponents (Barak and his partner) are 86 years old, retired from the public service, dealing with health problems. Dealing with the issue in question causes the opponents physical and mental suffering” Detailing the intensity of the damage to the yard and apartment, which “a reasonable person would not have agreed to, easily and materially older and sick people,” as written.
As stated, the motion to dismiss the permit application on behalf of retired Judge Barak was denied by the Local Planning and Building Commission, and recently an appeal was filed on his behalf against the decision to the District Committee.
Advocate Paz Yitzhaki-Weinberger, representing the tenants, said in response that “the local committee made the right decision, and we are confident that the appeal will also be rejected. In general when objections are filed this idle is unfortunate, and especially when the appellant, who was the ‘Knight of the Protection of Property and Individual Rights’, is currently trying to attack tenants who want to exercise their property right. “Such an objection should have been filed when the master plan was submitted for approval, but then the appellant did not object, and at the present stage he has no right of standing at all.
Advocate Yosef Granot from the firm of Olshansky-Granot & Co., who represented retired judge Aharon Barak in the case, has not yet received a response.