The Lonely Structure Dilemma: "Even after the MFA - Must Maintain Planning Flexibility"

Julia Ohayon ,calcalist.co.il.

The alternative that is being formulated for TAM 38 continues to resonate among activists in the real estate industry. This is after last week, one of the members of the Planning Commission (Wallonia) Subcommittee on Principal Planning Issues, recommended to the National Council that the plan expire in October 2022, and that an outline will be created that will replace the existing plan and change the nature of urban renewal in Israel altogether.

The new outline will include transitional provisions for existing TAMA 38 projects until the new general plan comes into effect. According to the outline, applications for building permits submitted to the local committees until October 2022 will continue to apply TEMA instructions 38, followed by a gradual transition to the new plan. As part of the transition provisions, a legislative amendment will be introduced that allows local committees to approve a detailed demolition and rebuilding plan for buildings granted a building permit before 1980.

Underlying the principles of the new outline will give priority to the renewal of entire complexes over individual construction projects, along with the granting of greater powers by the mayors to approve urban renewal plans in their territory. As a result, the powers of the local committees will be expanded to permit commercial and public uses in the municipal renewal programs to the extent prescribed by law, along with discretion as to how to distribute uses, widen roads and public land as well as consolidate lots - things which they have not been able to determine so far. TAMA.

It was also decided that as of 2022, a plan was approved by the local committee like him to grant a building permit by virtue of it. This change is likely to result in additional permit applications and will help alleviate the bureaucratic procrastination that exists today, which will result in extremely lengthy schedules for many construction projects.

In addition, against the backdrop of senior construction and housing ministry officials and the Ministry of Justice to change the levy collection mechanism for urban renewal projects, the Subcommittee decided that, contrary to the current GDPR directives, which completely exempt the developers from the levy levies, the possibility of collecting levy levies on both construction projects will be examined. In order to enable the local authority to collect, even partially, a levy of 38 point or compound TAMA implementation, in order to develop the existing urban infrastructure.

Against the backdrop of infrastructure obsolescence in many cities, increasing congestion and a budget deficit, many mayors are currently trying to curb urban renewal in their territory. However, the collection of a betterment levy may be a solution to the growth of the population caused by these ventures, allowing the municipalities to put their hands-on budgets to be used to build public facilities.

Force corrupts

Although not really surprised them, the real estate market activists received the gospel with mixed feelings. Abashi Sagi, CEO and Real Estate City Owners , a company that initiates urban renewal projects across the country, points to the key concern of entrepreneurs abandoning the GDPR "The Point": "As a rule, the move from promoting individual ventures here and there to focusing on urban renewal is a positive thing, certainly for the local authorities who want to address the largest number of residents. However, the more residents involved in the project, the more difficult it is to implement it. .

"Therefore, planning flexibility must be maintained, and where a combination of buildings is an obstacle to a project, specific projects should be implemented with a single structure." Regarding the delegation of power to the local authorities, Guy believes that this is a right move - as long as he supervises them: "The local authority usually knows best what its residents' needs, including residential and commercial needs. However, this must be enshrined in an approved urban plan. Advance by a national or provincial control body. Otherwise, a situation may arise where some authorities will require a biased trade and office mix to generate higher income from property taxes, and actually use their new power to solve their financial problems - at the expense of housing needs." 

Abhi Sagi. The new outline may shorten the time it takes to issue building permits Photo: Downtown Real Estate

What about the proposal to approve a building permit? Will it advance the industry?

"From the approval of a plan in the local committee to the building permit phase, it can take many months - a time that could be saved before entering the committee. So, in my opinion, this is a welcome step that can shorten the unreasonable amount of time it takes today to obtain a permit, and sometimes it takes three years."

Like many of his colleagues, Sagi also "bounces" the proposal to charge urban renewal entrepreneurs with improvement levies: "Many projects are not even running today, in the current situation, due to improvement levy requirements. "Instead of setting fixed levies, an appraiser's standard, such as Standard 21 for evacuation-construction, should be adopted, which will determine project profitability, so that the improvement levy can be determined according to the profitability of the developer."

 

 

 

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