In clash of developer vs. kibbutz, the developer wins

Anyone visiting the area near Kibbutz Ga'ash a few years from now will probably find a gated luxury community. The building of this community north of Tel Aviv has triggered a complex dispute between big construction companies, planning institutions and environmental groups. Now it appears the real estate developers have won.

This past Monday, Tel Aviv Administrative Court Judge Oded Mudrik ratified the building plans approved by the local planning committee - an undertaking that had been rejected by the regional planning committee. This means that after obtaining some building permits, the Tzukei Arsuf real estate development company will be able to continue putting up the new neighborhood.

Change of plans

Kibbutz Ga'ash had originally wanted to build homes for its second generation on the 30 dunams (7.5 acres) of disputed land. That plan changed with the rescheduling of the kibbutz's bank debt, and half of the land was sold to the Sekom real estate development company in 2001.

Sekom planned to build a residential neighborhood separate from the kibbutz, about 200 meters from the Mediterranean sea. That plan was based on approval from the Hof Hasharon Regional Council's local planning and building committee.

In 2003, after Sekom had started building and marketing homes in the neighborhood, the Netanya Magistrate's Court ordered the project to be halted after a petition from the regional planning and building committee, which had not approved the rezoning of the land from a kibbutz expansion neighborhood to a separate neighborhood.

In 2004 Shikun Ovdim (now the owners of Sekom) bought the other 50 percent of the land and in November 2006 sold it all to Tzukei Arsuf for $30 million.

The new owners of the land thought they could move ahead with the building plans despite the objections of the court, the environmental organizations and the regional committee. In early 2007 Tzukei Arsuf applied to the court for a hearing on the decision to cancel the building plans. On Monday the Administrative Court accepted Tzukei Arsuf's arguments and allowed the project to go ahead.

"As a result of my decision," wrote Mudrik, "the Ga'ash plans remain in place and any order issued by the regional committee preventing the issuing of building permits based on the plans is canceled. The regional committee's order to the local committee to prepare a new detailed plan is also null and void."

Mudrik also ordered the regional planning committee to pay NIS 250,000 in legal expenses.

Green group disappointed

Representatives of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED), which had fought the project and won in 2003, when construction was halted, was disappointed with the court's decision. Yael Dori, in charge of urban planning at the IUED, said she is not upset with the developer, but with the justice system.

"Real estate developers are entitled to make as much profit as they are allowed," Dori said. "The problem is that they are allowed. It seems that despite the heightened awareness of environmental issues, the legal system has not completely understood this subject."

Dori feels that the new-old decision returns the debate to the placement of housing units, "instead of addressing the very existence of the neighborhood." Dori says that the new neighborhood will mar the landscape: "The judge's decision Monday is anti-social and anti-public."