New Planning Council Head Vows to Overhaul Israel's Building Laws

The new chairman of Israel's National Council for Planning and Construction, Adv. Beni Arbiv, has begun tackling the country's complex planning system, aiming to initiate legislative changes to address bottlenecks. Arbiv, who recently took office, stated in his first interview that the current Planning and Building Law, enacted in 1965 and heavily amended over the years, is outdated and inefficient. He described the law as "patchwork upon patchwork," with over 170 amendments creating contradictions and legal ambiguities that burden lawyers, civil servants, and the public.

Arbiv explained that previous attempts at comprehensive reform, like one in 2010, failed because the law is too vast to rewrite entirely. Instead, his approach will be to break down the reform into manageable parts, focusing initially on two critical areas: the division of powers between local and district planning committees, and betterment levies (a tax on property value increases due to planning decisions).

He highlighted the ambiguity in the current law regarding which committee has jurisdiction over different types of plans, leading to significant delays and uncertainty. Arbiv noted that district committees often handle small, localized projects that should fall under local committees, while the latter lack the authority for broader urban planning. Data shows that district committees approve plans yielding only 20% of the nation's housing units, suggesting they are bogged down with minor cases.

Arbiv also addressed the issue of betterment levies, acknowledging public disappointment with a recent interim report that offered few immediate solutions. He described the wide disparities in valuations and the uncertainty surrounding these levies as a major impediment to project approvals, particularly for urban renewal initiatives. While exploring alternatives like fixed fees per square meter or integrating the levy into capital gains tax, the current focus is on refining existing mechanisms to provide greater clarity and reduce litigation, especially concerning development rights and the timing of tax assessments.

Furthermore, Arbiv plans to address issues of distributive justice, proposing that a portion of betterment levies collected by wealthier authorities be pooled into a national fund and redistributed to areas with greater needs. He also aims to bring order to the concept of "developer obligations," where developers provide public benefits in exchange for increased building rights, noting this system is not effective in areas with lower land values.