housing9-by-Emily-SchneiderOn October 27, the Appeals Committee of the National Council approved an important and precedent-setting decision in an appeal filed by the Coalition for Affordable Housing (the “Coalition”). The appeal by the Coalition, of which the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) is a leading partner, dealt with Master Plan 3700, also known as the North-West Tel Aviv Master Plan. According to this plan, approximately 12,000 new housing units were due to be built in the region.
The appeal was submitted on October 30, 2012, following the District Committee for Building and Planning’s response to the Coalition’s submission on the affordable housing provisions in the master plan. Originally, the plan was to include 2,160 affordable housing units, but there was disagreement as to what would be considered “affordable”. Following opposition from private landowners, a researcher from the committee recommended deleting the affordable housing provisions from the plan in relation to private land and define them as “small units”. The District Committee adopted the recommendation, which it justified by explaining that it would cause damage to proprietary rights. It was decided that affordable housing units would instead be concentrated within public lands owned by the Tel-Aviv Municipality or by the Israel Lands Authority, but the definition remained vague.
The Attorney-General has in the past stated that so long as there is no explicit law on the matter, then no master plan can determine the price of cheap apartments. However, we contended in the appeal that it is not enough to simply define affordable housing as small apartments and homes for rent if they will not be targeted at population groups who are defined by the Ministry of Housing as being eligible for government assistance.
On October 9, 2013, the Appeals Committee accepted the claim that master plans can, and actually must, determine the target population for affordable housing units, and rejected the position of the private landowners that this is unacceptable proprietary interference. The committee noted that “setting target populations and allocating units for rental purposes is a key planning consideration that connects the purpose of the land to its uses … This issue – providing housing solutions – is at the core of the purposes of planning – even if it has proprietary consequences.”
The committee further stated that so long as an affordable housing law is not passed, master plans can not contain reference to prices for the rental or sale of properties, yet it is insufficient to define affordable housing as small properties or rental properties unless they meet certain additional criteria such as long-term rental or are targeted at specified eligible population groups. The committee’s decision is significant as these important tools can now be inserted into all master plans.
The committee determined that in the North-West Tel Aviv Master Plan, eligible groups would be defined as those who are considered eligible by the Ministry of Housing under the Law on Housing Loans. According to the Committee’s position, only such a determination will ensure that affordable housing units will not be purchased by investors, but will be used for those who do not have homes and need smaller and cheaper apartments.
The Appeals Committee believes that it falls to the legislators to state their positions on the matter of affordable housing. The council further made clear that if the Knesset passes an affordable housing bill in the plan, that it would empower the planning agency to reduce the price of affordable housing units according to their provisions of the future bill.
The appeal was written on behalf of the Coalition for Affordable Housing by Attorney Gil Gan-Mor, Head of the Right to Housing Program at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
The original opposition was written on behalf of the Coalition for Affordable Housing by Attorney Ora Bloom, from the Housing, Community & Law Clinic at Tel-Aviv University and Sari Kronish, an architect from Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights.
Additional Materials
Decision in the appeal (relevant sections, in Hebrew).
North-West Tel Aviv Appeal (in Hebrew).
Opposition to the North-West Tel Aviv Plan (in Hebrew).
