Globes, Eric Mirowski, 04.06.2020

A construction evacuation project in Ashdod has led to a decline in the value of apartments nearby. Thus, an advisory appraiser, appointed by the Southern District Planning and Construction Appeals Committee, decided to discuss the compensation claim filed by the apartment owners. This is a relatively rare decision, which will need to be approved by the District Appeals Committee.

In recent yearsThere has been a significant decrease in receiving compensation claims for impairment of apartments due to the approval of new plans. The claims are generally reasoned that people should expect that large area and apartment towers will be erected around them, and that there is no promise that the sea or rural fields that are visible from the apartments will remain so forever.

Currently, the District Appeals Committee for Planning and Construction South is discussing a construction evacuation project in Ashdod, which was approved in 2013. The project is promoted and established by the Nahmias group of entrepreneur Claude Nachmias. The project spans 35 acres west of Rogozin Street, and north of Moshe Dayan Street. Originally, it consisted of nine 4-3-story buildings, which included 150 apartments. In their place, a plan for the erection of 5 32-story towers and 675 apartments was approved. The first of the five towers has recently been completed and the second tower is under construction.

East and south of the project are old buildings at different heights. Six apartment owners from the same buildings, located on the streets of Rogozin and Dakar, have filed a claim with the local planning and construction committee for Ashdod for the decline in the value of their apartments because of the project, mainly because of the hiding of the sea view caused by the new towers. The owners of the apartments, through their counsel, Adv. Einav Cohen of the Amar office, Reiter, Jean, Shochatovich & Associates and appraiser Yaniv Sheeran, said that the value of their apartments fell by NIS 270-160,000 per apartment. In total, their claim reached "On the eve of approval of the condo plan, the apartment enjoyed a spectacular and unique panoramic view, without any built or planned disturbance, overlooking the sea, which is a fairly rare and sought-after advantage, which will be largely blocked for the proposed construction," the lawsuit wrote on one of the apartments.

The local committee, on the other hand, argued that the towers within the evacuation construction project would not lower the value of the apartments, and that they were designed so that they would only damage a narrow segment of the landscape. The committee also points out that the alternative to the project was the construction of a TAMA that would also create a barrier, so that any possible script would create a wall that would block the line of sight. Projects at least as tall as their buildings.

In January of this year, the Appeals Committee appointed Yael Heron as a consultant to the committee, in order to decide whether the value of the old dwellings did decline, and if so - in some. Heron recently filed her report, which concluded that house prices had indeed fallen as a result of approval of the construction project for evacuation. Because the plan was approved in 2013, the appraiser checked home prices before and after approval.

In its examination, it is noted that, although between 2013 and 2019, price increases were recorded, from the moment the construction of the evacuation construction project was started in 2017, the neighbors had a negative impact. According to the findings, as the buildings in which the transactions were carried out in the environment are more exposed to the evacuation construction project, fewer transactions have been carried out and the prices of the apartments have risen to a lesser extent than the other apartments in the area. This supports the plaintiffs' position that the value of the apartments was indeed compromised by the project's approval.

The appraiser visited the plaintiffs' apartments and concluded that the view from the old apartments would be damaged, and that the project would change its environment and crowd it. This argument was raised as early as 2012 at a meeting of the South County Commission that discussed the plan.

It rejected the claim that the possibility of exploiting rights under TAMA 38 is a sign of prosecution, since even if a TEMA 38 project was established in place of the evacuation construction, neighbors could file a claim for impairment. The appraiser also rejected the argument that neighbors were expected to erect tall buildings in their vicinity, because the environment was crowded even before the evacuation-construction project was approved, and it could therefore be expected that the planning and construction committee would actually prevent it from overloading it.

However, the advisory appraiser reduced the claimed value reductions, putting them at NIS 243-147,000, for a total of NIS 1.12 million.

Now the District Appeals Committee will have to discuss whether to approve the decisive appraiser's report followed by the compensation owed to the apartment owners.