The tower will move from the beach: The unusual solution for Amos Maimon's project in Bat Yam
A hotel tower planned to be built just 100 meters from the water line in Bat Yam will not be built in its planned format. The Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Commission has determined that building rights will be transferred to another plot further from the coastline.
A hotel tower planned to be built just 100 meters from the water line in Bat Yam will not be built in its planned format. The Subcommittee for Objections of the Tel Aviv District Commission determined that the building rights will be transferred to another plot owned by the developer in the west of the city, which is further from the coastline and the cliff — a relatively unusual move in the planning system.
The project in question belongs to real estate developer Amos Maimon, whose company is building several projects in Bat Yam, alongside other cities in the central region. Maimon held private land covering 14.5 dunams on the edge of the Bat Yam cliff, which is part of an old master plan approved before the Coastal Law was passed. Today, most of the plan is located within the coastal environment boundary, meaning a new plan of this type could not pass through planning committees today due to its proximity to the beach (in new plans, construction is prohibited at a distance of less than 300 meters from the beach).
The original plan presented by Maimon was for the construction of a 46-story residential tower, but the District Commission changed the designation to hotel use, lowered the tower's height to 24 stories, of which two are intended for residential use, and it was approved for deposit in the plenum in September 2022. The decision to allow high-rise construction on this plot moved in 2024 to the VALHUF (Committee for the Protection of the Coastal Environment), which approved it in a puzzling manner. The Adam Teva V'Din (ATD) organization filed an additional objection to the Subcommittee for Objections of the Tel Aviv District Commission.
The solution that was proposed and finally accepted is the solution of transferring rights from the plot on the water line to another plot in the west of the city. This solution of transferring rights is almost never used, and in the past was used mainly to transfer rights from buildings for preservation to new projects in Tel Aviv. The main argument of the committees until now regarding the rights transfer solution was that it is a solution that entails many legal difficulties and therefore they rarely used it. However, in this case, the Tel Aviv District Commission decided to implement the rights transfer method anyway, and it is estimated that part of this was made possible thanks to the developer's dissatisfaction with the building rights offered to him in the north of the city, compared to more extensive rights further south.
The decision reached is to transfer the rights from the tower in the west to another land owned by the developer at 101-103 Ben Gurion Street. On this plot, he will be able to build a 24-story residential tower, and on the original plot, he will be able to build a 3-story commercial building (instead of 24) that will be open to the general public and will not hide the sea.
At ATD, they praised the decision of the Tel Aviv District Commission, but on the other hand, they criticized the VALHUF:
«The Committee for the Protection of the Coastal Environment is again failing in its duty established by law, by approving the plan without any significant attempt to improve the planning in a way that would reduce the harm to the public and the environment. It is suggested to those responsible for the VALHUF to do some soul-searching, and consider whether it is not time for a fundamental change in the way this committee operates, which seems to have long been failing to fulfill the important role assigned to it by law in a proper manner.»
At ATD, they also noted that throughout the long struggle, they insisted that there is no legal or planning obstacle to transferring the building rights to another location, despite the claims of the planning institutions that this is not possible. It has been proven that it is possible to find an optimal planning solution that protects both the developer's rights and the public interest.
Adv. Ortal Sankar from the legal department at Adam Teva V'Din stated:
«Sea beaches are a rare and limited public resource, and in the reality of a climate crisis, rising sea levels, and the shrinking of the coastline, protecting every piece of beach open to the public becomes more important than ever. Decisions of this type are significant in reducing the harm to beaches.»
Yael Dori, head of the planning department at ATD, added:
«This important decision proves that there is no need to choose between the developer's rights and the public good, and that with a willingness to find creative solutions, it is possible to reach a result that is good for all parties. We hope that this decision will lead to a change in the approach of planning institutions to harmful plans, and in particular to old plans approved before the Coastal Law, and that the tool of transferring rights will become part of the toolkit for improving archaic planning that harms the public and the environment.»
