Calcalist, Amitay Gazit, 16.06.2020

Construction plans along mass transit routes, planning in ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities, evacuation of construction and huge plans, are the new author's powers, as they come from a law memorandum presented by the Interior Ministry to public comments. To the law that was needed because the IDF operates under a directive that expired this week. According to the law memo, the Interior Ministry wants to extend the commission's activities by August 2024, focusing on tasks that have been defined as strategically important.

As first revealed by Calcalist, the central renewal of the commission's activities will be planning along mass transit axes with the main goal of increasing as much construction space as possible near these axes, bringing as many jobs and residences as possible, reducing traffic jams, and increasing residential supply in the central area.

During the discussions on the new law, the question of exactly what mass transit delegations you can plan for the project was raised. The planning sought that the planning activities of the committee would focus only on the 3 metros that are to be erected in the central area. In other words, at least according to the wording of the current position of the Ministry of Finance was accepted because the law does not restrict planning only to the metro.

In light of the fact that the Commission will not only deal with the planning of residential complexes, but in all the planning elements for the purpose of the committee, the word development was added so that it is included in the Law on the Preferred Housing and Development Committee.

Because of the housing crisis among the ultra-Orthodox public, the committee will also deal with building plans in ultra-Orthodox communities. When the new law defines as ultra-Orthodox, every town where at least 30% of the residents are ultra-Orthodox. The prerequisite for transferring an ultra-Orthodox settlement plan to the IDF is the potential for building 500 apartments.

The committee will continue to handle building plans for Arab communities, in which case the threshold condition is the potential for the construction of 20 new apartments. In addition, the Commission will continue to address construction evacuation plans when the threshold conditions are the existence of at least 100 apartments for evacuation.

The commission will also address huge building plans that are of national or provincial importance and on the condition that they have the potential to build at least 2,500 apartments. This is aimed at areas such as Sde Dov, and by scrolls in Ramat Hasharon. This definition reduces the ability to promote plans for vacant land. Until now, the threshold condition for planning on vacant land was the potential for building 700 apartments.

Ministry of Interior response: "Alongside the extension of the law governing the activity of the author, the Ministry of the Interior, as the person responsible for planning policy in Israel and with regard to the municipal aspects, found it appropriate to add changes needed to focus the committee's activities on planning challenges that have not been addressed so far.

"For example, the ministry believes that urban regeneration programs in the city centers should be expanded in light of the new and extensive construction in the suburbs. Permit to meet planning objectives that have been validated in a government decision.

"The memorandum refers to the committee's activities regarding the formulation of broad strategic plans for housing. As regards expanding the committee's authority on the development of biased public transport, the issue of overcrowding of city centers and the development of an efficient public transport system are issues that complement each other and their treatment must be carried out in parallel. One of the most significant barriers to the addition of housing units and areas of employment within cities is the transportation challenge. Rapid planning of transport-oriented development complexes in proximity to mass transit stations and concurrent planning of transport infrastructure is expected to complete government action on this issue and enable the necessary density to establish an efficient and economical transport system. "