Globes, Guy Nardi 04.04.2021
Haifa District Court Judge Avraham Elyakim decided to dismiss the petitions filed against the Kiryat Ata North plan (1025). The plan, which offers construction of a new residential district with 11,000 housing units, is located between Kiryat Ata and Kfar Bialik, mostly in agricultural areas Worked by the localities of Kfar Bialik, Usha and Kfar HaMaccabi. The plan was approved by the Hotamal (National Committee for the Planning and Construction of Preferred Housing Complexes) in October 2019. The court also ordered the petitioners to pay court fees.
The plan was promoted by Rami in cooperation with the Kiryat Ata municipality, and its area is about 6,400 dunams. In the new district, the planning includes 11,000 housing units, a municipal park and a commercial, industrial, employment and storage complex. Regional patients, which will include about 2,200 inpatient beds, of which geriatric hospital beds and psychiatric hospital beds will be allocated. protected.
The petitions were submitted, among others, by the Center for Regional Councils, the Kibbutz Movement and various localities in the Kiryat Ata area, with most of the arguments concerning the Authority's authority as a planning institution, Designated residential neighborhood.
Judge Elyakim clarified to the petitioners that he accepts Hotamal's answer regarding the fact that the implementation of the plan, which is planned on Rami's lands, is feasible, given that most of the housing units approved in other plans are on private land. "The starting point of the Hotamal Law is the existence of a national shortage of housing units and the immediate need to increase the demand for apartments at the national level. "It also appears from the Hotamal's response to the petitioners' petition that in the Kiryat Ata area there are the largest land reserves owned by the state, unlike other cities in the area around Haifa, and this fact is significant when prompt implementation of planning procedures is required."
As for the claim that the plan "disproportionately harms the agricultural areas", the judge ruled that the kibbutzim do not own the land: The purpose of the box or part of it changes. "
In conclusion, the judge ruled that the plan does not deviate from the district outline plan: The development needs of the Haifa District and the agricultural areas, and the plan (NOP 1025) does not deviate from this framework. "
Advocate Ron Rogin, who represented the kibbutz movement and Kfar Bialik in the petition against Hotamal, responded: "Tama 1025 includes the construction of surplus commercial areas amounting to about one million square meters (equivalent to 40 malls) while destroying Masses of fertile and productive agricultural land, all under the false headline of increasing the supply of housing. Approved plans of thousands of units have been lying in Kiryat Ata for years as an irreversible stone.
Nir Mesika, former deputy director of the National Housing Headquarters, responded: "Hotamal was a key partner in changing the planning reality of the previous government. The planning goals, which were broken down year after year in full cooperation with the district planning and building committees, were conclusive proof that the squad The first in the apartment production chain made a real leap forward and completed years of planning neglect gaps.
"As the person who also served as chairman of the Haifa District Planning and Construction Committee during 2020, the vice president of the district court, Justice Avraham Elyakim, did well to decide to dismiss the petition.
"The plan will have a significant impact on the development and prosperity of Kiryat Ata. I sincerely hope that the next government and the Knesset that will be sworn in tomorrow will soon return the OTMAL to the full activity needed in the current planning reality."