Patterns of development and conservation in agricultural lands—The case of the Tel Aviv metropolitan region 1990–2000

Characteristics of developers and their relations to open space conservation

“…The area chosen for study was the Tel Aviv Metropolitan region (TMR) which, since the 1990s, has been undergoing accelerated growth resulting in sprawling development in agricultural lands, which are the largest component of Israel's open space reserves (for a brief description of the TMR see: Maruani and Amit-Cohen, 2010). The study was based on a random sample of 88 local statutory land use plans, out of 435 relevant plans that met the following criteria: (a) they planned to convert agricultural land for built-up uses; (b) they were located within the TMR; and (c) they were statutorily deposited for public reference or approved between January 1990 and December 1999.…”

“…This is particularly true for agricultural land, which is subject to policies and restrictions imposed by the ILA (see also : Feitelson, 1999;Maruani and Amit-Cohen, 2010;Werczberger and Borukhov, 1999). The rest of the land (mostly in urban areas but also part of the agricultural land) is in private ownership.…”

“…This indicates the high demand for development in the TMR, which attracts private developers. Moreover, in the past, state developers were dominant in the TMR, because they could initiate development plans on public land, which was not available to private initiatives until the shifts in Israeli land policy in 1990s (Maruani and Amit-Cohen, 2010).…”

The Environmental Impacts of Sprawl: Emergent Themes from the Past Decade of Planning Research

“…Using a combination of scenario planning and quantitative models, this article [28] demonstrates that focused growth management policies can be more effective than current policies in preserving open space and farmlands. Maruani and Amit-Cohen [53] focus specifically on Tel Aviv and also argue that large amount of public land ownership in Israel (93%) is ideally suited for strong environmental protection policies through land management regulations. Sprawl has also been linked to habitat loss [3,20,51], but primarily within the developed country context.…”

The role of courts in open space conservation: Lessons from the Israeli experience

“…Also, all the cases related to specific statutory land use plans that were concerned, among others, with issues of open space conservation, e.g., conservation of a specific landscape, habitat or species. The list of cases (Table 1) reflects some of the characteristic conflicts related to open space conservation in Israel, mainly the high demand for development within the Tel Aviv metropolitan region (TMR) in the core of Israel (48% of the cases) (Maruani and Amit-Cohen, 2010). Table 1 also reflects the attractiveness of seaside development (30% of the cases) which in many cases was contradictory to national outline planning (NOP 13) that prohibited seaside development except hotels and tourism facilities.…”