Contractors find their major obstacles are not in the realm of market conditions or client characteristics but rather, in the time required to complete projects. They fear often unexpected external factors that may complicate, delay or undermine projects that appear promising on paper.

Planning committees, stipulations, objections, appeals, amended administrative rulings and foot-dragging in court contribute to an array of potholes into which entrepreneurs might stumble. Local councils and government institutions also stand in the way of those who wish to build in Israel.

The process of obtaining permits from a bifurcated system of elected bureaucracies is only one aspect of the nightmarish world of those who engage in construction industry - a variety of obstacles thwarts implementation of desired projects.

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Rosh Ha'ayin: One resident's resistance

About 12 years ago, the Israel Defense Forces evacuated facilities on the hills of Firing Range 203, east of Rosh Ha'ayin, leaving behind one of the largest and most promising reserves of land in the greater Tel Aviv region. About 3,000 dunams were set aside to build 12,000 residential units in six neighborhoods. The project, which earned "preferred" status, was to be supervised by special planning committees and was fully backed by the Israel Land Administration (ILA) and the Ministry of Housing and Construction.

Since then, 12 years later, the plan has produced desperate local council members, frustrated contractors - and not a single residential unit. How is this possible?

As early as 1995, CPM won a Planning and Development Authority tender to build and develop a neighborhood in the area and, four months later, they presented a proposal to build 4,600 units at the site.

"We were already faced with problems at the local planning and building committee level," explains David Tzion, one of CPM's owners. "The committee demanded that we increase the area, add public institutions and add a variety of infrastructure. A year and a half later, we completed these requirements, and the plan was passed to the district committee."

According to Tzion, the district refused to discuss the neighborhood plan until a national master plan was presented to include the entire area in the hills. After the master plan was presented and approved, in a protracted statutory process, objections from the IDF, thousands of residents and green organizations (reduced quality of life, lack of public space and sanitation issues) were considered.

Three years later, all required amendments had been added, all stipulations had been fulfilled and the plan was finally approved.

Tzion says that his sense of satisfaction was premature because one of many residents who had opposed the project requested and received district approval to appeal the plan's approval in the national council. In his appeal, he maintained that despite the fact that the approved proposal was in line with the national master plan, it diverged from the district master plan which stipulated that the entire area remain rural in character.

Explanations by the state and contractors regarding the advanced phase of the approval process failed to thwart demands to once again provide a new district proposal, present it to the district committee, hear objections and present it for approval.

The Interior Ministry approved and signed the proposal two years later, but another surprise lay in store for contractors. The same opponent, aware that he had exhausted statutory measures to block the plan, appealed to the Tel Aviv District Court claiming the irregularity of the national council approval process. One year later, his appeal was accepted and the plan was overturned.

"We were sure it was a joke," Tzion bitterly chuckles. "I read the ruling and didn't believe my eyes. The court decided to wage a battle against the national council on our backs and once again we had to hire attorneys and appeal to the High Court."

The ILA, the Rosh Ha'ayin municipality and the contractors have been waiting for the High Court decision for more than two years. According to Tzion, the same resident has ignored legal advice to cease submitting numerous appeals and has continued despite the rejection of most of them. On one occasion, he appealed to the court to overturn the plan because contractors had failed to complete the project within the schedule proposed in the contract.

"It is simply unbelievable," Tzion sighs. "We thought everything would go quickly. A decade has passed and we have invested NIS 20 million. We are frustrated, sad and unable to complain for fear that it would only do more damage."

Ma'alot: War of the worlds

In the late 1990s, the Housing and Construction Ministry proposed the construction of Givat Oranim on land that mainly belongs to the ILA. But government backing failed to achieve the plan's implementation during the last seven years. The proposed housing, including multistory buildings (up to 5-6 stories), on 300 dunams of forested hills bordering the well-established town of Kfar Vradim, would have been exceptional in the surrounding Galilee landscape. It drew the expected opposition of residents and green organizations, which continues to this day.

"There was opposition to the proposal from its inception: Residents of the area opposed the progress of the plan and later, the multistory or terraced construction, due to fear that it would damage the landscape and reduce the value of their property," says Ma'alot-Tarshiha municipal engineer Noam Massad.

According to Massad, the legal firm residents employed to represent them in the district committee "shot in every direction," citing invasion of nature reserves, crowding and lack of sufficient transportation infrastructure.

"Many organizations objected and all of them had to be heard," Massad says, noting that the committee ultimately required the municipality to reach a compromise with several opponents, forcing reduction in the size of the project and causing several buildings to be moved from their proposed sites.

The plan was finally submitted for conditional approval. Conditions included paving an additional road to meet the needs of residents of the project's second phase and amending the route of the proposed road.

"In the last three years, three different versions of the plan have been formulated," Massad adds. He notes that opponents appealed to the national council after the district council decision and also to the committee for principle planning issues.

Opponents, who continued their activity after statutory avenues were exhausted, appealed to the Nazareth District Court, which issued an injunction to halt approval proceedings. The Ma'alot-Tarshiha municipality has now been waiting for the court's final ruling for several months.

"In the last five years, we have barely managed to build anything," Massad says. "Every rock you move in Galilee draws immediate opposition, exposure of flaws in approval proceedings, arguments regarding the nature of construction, obligation to provide costly solutions - and the whole process takes a long time."

Massad admits that any building in Galilee comes at the expense of open space, but adds that "a city that doesn't develop is a city destined to die."

Who's responsible for these delays?

When you ask contractors who is responsible for the foot-dragging in Israeli construction projects, they unanimously point fingers at the planning ommission. "It's almost impossible to cope with thousands of objections and the committee saps us of any remaining energy before projects are submitted for approval," says David Tzion.

Legal advisers, on the other hand, cite the role of judicial proceedings. "One deliberation is incredible in content, another incredible in length - and we're lucky to receive an apology regarding the court's backlog of cases," says Rosh Ha'ayin legal representative Moshe Cohen.

Housing Ministry Central District director Rivka Abelson does not consider the content of responses from regulatory bodies to be the central problem - she points to their methods. "The response time of various government authorities is too long," Abelson says.

The major problem, according to her, is not the objections of committees or ministerial requirements but the lack of time limits to these proceedings. "There's no limit to the length of deliberations and time permitted to investigate responses to objections - so these proceedings spread out over years.

"In addition, there were plans subjected to seven different versions of the same committee. Every time a new member joined, he was forced to examine the plan anew and some rejected plans approved by their predecessors, pushing everything back to the beginning."

According to Abelson, the solution lies in setting a time limit for all government authorities involved in statutory planning proceedings in Israel. "The solution has to represent pressure on authorities to express reservations and respond in a reasonably timely fashion. Do they wish to issue orders? No problem. But respond to what has been done within a month or two - otherwise, the plan should go forward without their approval."