The Planning Administration goes on the attack: “Rami was a full partner in the housing program it is attacking”

by time news

The debate over the strategic housing plan turns into a battle between senior government officials. The plan was born in 2017 when the government adopted residential planning and construction targets by 2040 set by the National Economic Council. In recent years the Planning Administration has been translating these objectives into an action plan.

Read more in Calcalist:

Earlier this week, Calcalist revealed a request from the director of the Israel Land Authority (RMI) Yankee Quint to Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, in which he claimed that sections of the plan would delay the construction of tens of thousands of apartments.

In a letter of response sent to the Minister of the Interior, the Director General of the Planning Administration, Dalit Zilber, clarifies that the plan was formulated in collaboration with RMI and other relevant bodies and is therefore “surprised” by Quint’s request. “The conflict projects raised in the letter were examined in principle with representatives of RMI and the Ministry of Construction and Housing and most of them are in agreement,” Zilber writes. Rami, as a significant player in the housing chain continuum, is a full partner in the preparation of the strategic plan. “

In the letter, Zilber details 17 different discussions held at the planning institutions in the procedures for promoting the program, in which representatives of RMI took part.

The controversy arose after the Planning Administration sought to bring the plan up for discussion and approval by the National Planning and Building Council. This procedure was not legally necessary, as government bodies already use the tools produced by the Planning Administration. However, the discussion was held in order for the plan to gain backing from the highest planning authority – the council of which has 36 members. Rami fears that such a decision may impose restrictions on them.

The person who will decide on the issue is Shlomi Heisler, chairman of the National Council for Planning and Construction and chairman of the planning staff at the Ministry of the Interior. Heisler has rejected a request from the Planning Administration to bring the plan up for discussion in the National Council right now.

Heisler warned of a legal difficulty stemming from the fact that the strategic plan is a hybrid creature not recognized in the Planning and Building Act. The questions he will need to find out are what is the legal validity of this plan, whether national or district outline plans are subject to it and what planning procedures it needs to go through. Along with this decision in principle, he will have to formulate a position regarding the disputes between Rami and the Planning Administration.

In response to Calcalist’s request, Heisler said: “The issue should indeed reach my decision and I will diagnose it in the coming months.”

This is the first time that the state has presented a long-term and thorough work plan for the construction of apartments and for the development of infrastructure and employment areas necessary for the new apartments. Its importance is that it enables all government bodies to adapt the construction of infrastructure to predicted dates when new neighborhoods will be established and populated.

This is exactly the bedrock of the dispute between RMI and the Planning Administration. RMI believes that the Planning Administration has taken on powers other than its own, and seeks to prevent the plan from being approved in a way that could sandal them and prevent the development of complexes at their discretion. On the other hand, the Planning Administration clarifies that the plan is a guiding document and not binding from a planning point of view. In addition, Zilber has often argued that the infrastructure crisis that the country suffers from and prevents neighborhood development stems from the fact that there is no orderly action plan and each of the enforcement bodies acts at its discretion, often without compliance with residential construction plans.

The controversy may affect Israel’s development directions. Zilber seeks to define clear demarcation boundaries and focus the government effort on implementing plans within these boundaries, inter alia to prevent harm to open spaces. On the other hand, Rami seeks to achieve flexibility in implementation and argues that the development priorities should be defined by the government.

This program can also be seen as a legacy that will be left behind by Dalit Zilber, who will retire in July this year. It lifted the glove after in 2017 the government approved the goals of the strategic housing plan by 2040 formulated by the National Economic Council. According to it, in order to meet the population growth forecast, 1.5 million new apartments must be built. In light of the fact that construction plans have been implemented over many years, the planning institutions are asked to approve plans for the construction of 2.6 million apartments during this period.

In accordance with these objectives, the Planning Administration leads action plans in the areas of housing, employment, infrastructure and open spaces. The important innovation implemented by the Planning Administration is the distribution of the planning inventory for periods of 5 years, in each of which the government ministries will be able to know how many apartments will be built and where. In this way it is possible to locate barriers even before construction begins and to avoid the common situation today where a shortage of a certain infrastructure is identified only during the completion of construction and sometimes only after it.

The division into 5-year periods worries Remi because in her perception she is handcuffing her. She seeks to build where possible and leave the government with the headache involved in solving infrastructure problems.

The program also encourages the expansion of existing employment areas and the reduction of the development of new areas because there is already a surplus of such programs today. Rami wants to allow it to approve new industrial areas because it claims cities do not allow construction without the addition of employment areas.

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