Appeals committee rules against holiday village on Galilee beach

A planning committee has ruled against allowing construction of a holiday resort,  on Betzet Beach in the western Galilee in northern Israel, the second such project to be rejected in recent days as authorities  look to preserve open coastal areas.

The ruling by the planning committee on Tuesday comes days after a court ruled against construction of a holiday resort and conference center on the popular Palmachim beach between Ashdod and Bat Yam.

Initial approval of a plan for a holiday village on Betzet Beach was given some 30 years ago, but nothing was built. Several developers tried to revive the idea over recent years, but came up against opposition from environmental activists, supported by the Israel Parks and Nature Authority and the Environmental Protection Ministry.

The latest developer to try his luck was Herzl Tzioni. The plan he put forward last year was to build single-story wooden bungalows 100 meters (110 yards) from the Mediterranean Sea on a plot of land occupied by a former, abandoned, holiday village.

In June 2019, the northern division of the District Planning Committee ruled against the project. Last month, Tzioni appealed to the appeals subcommittee of the National Planning Council, which ruled against him, driving the final nail into the coffin of his plans.

“Current planning policy increasingly recognizes the important interest of protecting the coastal environment for the benefit of the whole public and of future generations, and the value of preserving the open, natural environment,” the appeals subcommittee wrote in its ruling, adding that the public interest outweighed that of the developer.

The Society for the Protection of Nature, which lead the campaign against building on Betzet Beach, said in a statement: “We cannot accept old plans which were submitted many years ago when the physical status [of land] and [environmental] awareness then was completely different, both among planners and the public. Today’s planning thinking is different from what it was in the past when the plans were submitted. Its aim [today] is to find the balance between development and open space, preservation of nature and landscapes, for the benefit of the public. The SPNI congratulates the committee on its decision”

Betzet beach boasts rare flora and is an important nesting ground for sea turtles.

An amendment to the 2004 Protection of the Coastal Environment Law, whose progress through the Knesset has been stymied by two inconclusive election results and the resulting lack of a functioning government for over a year, aims to mandate the re-examination of all building plans approved before the law came into force and to give planning institutions the authority to cancel or alter such plans, with the state providing compensation to landowners either in monetary form or by transferring land and building rights elsewhere.