Calcalist, Shlomit Tzur, 27.08.2020
The dream of a new apartment in Hod Hasharon recently receded with the decision of the National Planning and Building Council to cancel a huge 20,000-apartment plan, which was promoted for four years by the Planning Administration and the government company to rent an apartment. The National Council, which in 2016 decided to promote the program vigorously on its own, has now taken a step back, and ordered the program to be promoted in the regular route in the district committee. This move is a warning sign to all agricultural land buyers who dream of building rights in the area and to agricultural land marketers, including Canada Israel.
In the background of the decision is the municipality's opposition to the scope of construction in the plan, which is now receiving a boost from the head of the National Council, Mordechai Cohen, who is also the director general of the Ministry of the Interior. While his predecessor, Avigdor Yitzhaki, when the Planning Administration was under the Ministry of Finance, sought to promote and approve as many housing units as possible despite opposition from local authorities, Cohen is well aware of the negative consequences of large populations on local authorities' situation, coffers and scales.
The canceled plan included 12,000 dunams, a significant portion of them in the south of the city, between Nahal Hayarkon and Road 5 in the south, Road 40 in the east, Road 4 in the west and the Neve industrial zone. loyalAnd the Neve Hadar neighborhood in the north. In recent years, a number of private agricultural land companies have marketed the complex, some under the slogan "right to an apartment", in the amounts of NIS 450,000-250,000. The marketers were equipped with a decision by the National Council from the end of 2016 to promote the plan, and a document of principles from the end of 2019, prepared by the Planning Administration and an apartment for rent, for land planning. The documents appear to this day on almost all the websites of the marketing companies.
What does not appear in the companies' publications is the opposition of the Hod Hasharon municipality, led by Amir Kochavi, to construction on the site, both due to the lack of sources of income and due to transportation difficulties that have worsened with the acceleration of construction in the city in recent years. Now, with the National Council's decision to repeal the program in an accelerated route over the heads of the local and district committee, and transfer it to the district committee table, there is no certainty what the plan will include.
"It is said that the cancellation of the plan is a precedent, but its very promotion was unprecedented," Kochavi told Calcalist. Stages and without transport, economic and such solutions that will ensure the preservation of the urban fabric of life. These are the reasons why we worked to cancel the plan and bring the planning back home. I thank the chairman of the National Council, Mordechai Cohen, and the director general of the Planning Administration, Dalit Zilber, for the courageous decision to allow us, together with the district, to work for benevolent planning for Hod Hasharon. " In addition, Kochavi mentioned that former chairman of the housing headquarters, Zeev Bielski, "recognized the gaps between healthy urban planning and a accelerated and predatory planning that sees only housing units and brought about rethinking and changing direction regarding the plan."
On the publications that relied on the canceled plan, Kochavi said: "The phenomenon of dream sellers is a problematic phenomenon that the state and local authorities must address. People see publications there.ParisM a plan as if in another moment a house is being built on it, and do not understand that not only will it take many years for there to be construction, but there is a reasonable chance that the plan will not be approved at all. In the past, we also contacted the police regarding publications that we thought were misleading the public, but we did not see any real treatment being done. "
Amir Kochavi, Mayor of Hod Hasharon: "The phenomenon of dream sellers is problematic, and the state and local authorities have a duty to address it." Photo: Shahar Tamir Studio
Architect Shira Glaitman, a fellow at the firm of architects and urban planners Naama Melis, who designed the Hod Hasharon master plan, says it is good that the National Council has canceled the plan: “The National Council initiates a national infrastructure plan and rarely initiates residential plans. This makes it difficult for residents to resist and know what the planning entails. The outline plan of Hod Hasharon doubles the number of its residents, and there is no justification for such a significant addition as the city's difficult transportation problems have not yet been resolved, other than the planning of a metro that may be built in another 20 years. The plan also increased the building rights at the expense of the reduced area of the Yarkon Park, which is an ecological damage and has no justification. "
Regarding the marketing of agricultural land, she said: “The development of agricultural land varies according to the needs of the time and political pressures, so there is no certainty when buying land at an early stage of planning. "People do not differentiate between the gross area they buy, and the net area that will remain for them and do not take into account expropriations."
The evacuation is still far away
The longing of Israelis for the apartment they own is leading more and more agricultural land marketers to split the area into small plots of 100-120 square meters and offer them for sale to the general public, all while the land has not yet been thawed for construction and the approval of plans is even further. This method of sale increases the likelihood of owner disputes after the plans are approved as well as the uncertainty that exists in any purchase of land whose planning has not yet been determined.
In some of the areas where large plans are being promoted, the phenomenon is widespread, such as the Blue Beach in Herzliya, the 3700 plan in northwest Tel Aviv, Pi Glilot in Tel Aviv and Ramat Hasharon, H-500 in Holon and Ir Yamim in Hadera.
In recent years, a number of companies have also been marketing agricultural land in southeast Ashdod, within a defined radius of the Elta defense plant, which imposes a construction restriction next to it. According to the Israel Land Authority (RMI), the evacuation of the plant will allow the construction of 40,000 apartments in the plant area and in the adjacent lands, but so far the plan to evacuate the plant has not been realized. In a meeting held by Calcalist as a buyer interested in purchasing agricultural land from one of the marketing companies, the issue of the plant was not mentioned. However, the appraiser's opinion attached to the purchase documents mentioned the issue of the plant.
Architect Danny Kaiser, a former architect of the Tel Aviv Municipality, who plans the plan for the Blue Beach in Herzliya, which was recently submitted for objections and includes 13,000 apartments, explains that in large plans the building plan is approved first, and then the division of building rights among the owners: That about 70% of the land will be expropriated in favor of public areas. Of the 2,000 dunams of land in the plan, only 600 dunams are marketable areas on which residences, offices, commerce and hotels will be built. The program has a multiplicity of plots and owners. Over the years some entities have found an opportunity to trade in expectations and sold small pieces of land. Today, when the extent of the expropriation in favor of public areas is known, those who bought land in an area of 100 square meters should understand that they are left with only 30 square meters of land.
The value goes down
The phenomenon of multiple plots and owners only increases the uncertainty. Marketing of dunams of agricultural land while being dismantled into small pieces of 120-100 square meters and less leads to complication and delay of proceedings that are also extremely lengthy. Adv. Sqm of agricultural land does not guarantee a 100 sqm apartment. The plan, even if its progress may change at the objection stage, certainty is in fact only when it is approved. Value reduction coefficient. "
He said that even when the plan on the land is approved, and the balance sheets of building rights between the owners are reached, the multiplicity of owners may complicate matters: "The owners' objections to the balance sheets that divide the rights between them. The location where the rights are obtained can also be a basis for objections, the more owners there are." A witness added that construction may be delayed if there is difficulty in reaching agreements between the owners, which could lead to a process of dissolution of a partnership.