11-Year TMA 38 Standoff in Haifa Becomes a Blame Game
A long-running TAMA 38 renewal plan for a five-apartment building at 31 Margalit Street in Haifa’s Shamberg neighborhood has turned into a fight over who is delaying it, the city or the developer. The Haifa local planning and building committee says the developer, Yozma Alonim, has kept returning with repeated deviations and appeals for more than a decade, while the company says the site’s narrow frontage and steep topography make the project unusually difficult.
Shamberg is one of Haifa’s most sought-after neighborhoods, between Ahuza and Carmel Center, with many homes facing the sea. New five-room apartments in TAMA 38 projects there average about 4.2 million shekels, four-room units about 3.4 million, and three-room units about 3 million. Depending on the type of project and sea view, prices can differ by 15% to 20%, and the economic potential is large enough to generate tens of millions of shekels in revenue.
The project first appeared on paper in April 2015, when Yozma Alonim sought demolition and rebuilding. The local committee rejected the permit as inconsistent with city policy, and a regional appeal was later erased. In January 2016, the company filed a revised plan for a 7.5-story building over two underground parking levels, but that too was rejected because the city then allowed only up to 6.5 stories over parking, and the plan included deviations from other municipal plans. Fewer than 80% of apartment owners had signed on, and some residents objected. By late 2018, another appeal was frozen to allow negotiations, with 10 extensions granted over 14 months before it was canceled. In July 2020, the company said it had agreements with some residents, but others, neighboring homes, and the municipality still objected, and Yozma Alonim said it was prepared to cut the project to 14 apartments.
In 2021, the appeal committee said the project’s density was not unusually high, but ordered design changes to meet environmental standards. In 2023, Yozma Alonim returned with a new plan for 6.5 stories, one parking level, and 14 apartments, saying it had incorporated the required changes. The local committee rejected it again, demanding a comprehensive traffic survey because of the concentration of TAMA 38 projects nearby and warning that removing one parking level could worsen an already tight parking situation. The appeal committee then sent the plan back for another professional review, and the committee later rejected yet another revised submission, saying it still violated the appeal committee’s guidance and the city’s 2016 planning policy.
Lawyers Shahar Levinzon and Yoni Shalev-Riva, representing some of the objecting neighbors, said the developer is deliberately wearing people down and wasting public resources. Yozma Alonim owner Avi Alonim said he is already preparing another appeal and argued that the site’s constraints keep creating technical problems. He said the building is on a “trapped plot” with height differences and access issues, and added, “I could have given up on everything and decided that people would enter the building through the parking lot. Should that be a building entrance? Today people reach the apartments via stairs and a path. If I do that, I will have no project.” He said he recently completed a different project that took 13 years and insisted, “I am not one who gives up.”
