Plans for huge new Tel Aviv gateway project approved

The National Committee for the Planning and Construction of Preferred Housing Complexes (VATMAL), chaired by Rabbi Natan Elnatan, has approved for conditional deposit the plan for South Glilot. The plan in an area shared by Tel Aviv and Ramat Hasharon is for 19,320 housing units, increased from 18,500 in the original plan. The plan also includes construction of a commercial center, sports areas and 480 dunams (120 acres) of open space.

The plan, which when finally approved will allow building permits to be issued, will be deposited for objects, probably after the holidays.

The plan has been promoted by the Israel Land Authority (ILA) on 1,700 dunams (425 acres) of land between Derekh Namir to the west, Road 5 to the north, the Ayalon Highway to the east and Ramat Aviv Gimmel to the south. Until 20 years ago the Pi Glilot fuel storage area was located on part of the land.

About 80% of the land is owned by the state and another 20% by private owners, so that the state will earn the lion’s share of the profits from marketing the land although it will require a huge investment in infrastructures.

Calculating at least NIS 2 million for the land for each housing unit, revenue from sales of just some of the homes will reach more than NIS 30 billion.

“Planning tyranny

The plan has been slowly progressing through planning institutions for over 20 years, and during its preparatory stages it encountered opposition from many quarters. One of the more recent opponents has been the Ramat Hasharon Municipality, under whose jurisdiction most of the apartments will be built. “This plan destroys the second biggest daffodil field in Israel and the drainage lake of Ramat Hasharon and northern Tel Aviv, and all this without any attention paid by the experts. This is what planning tyranny that tramples on land and cities looks like,” the municipality says.

The municipality recently signed a roof agreement with the ILA worth about NIS 10 billion, which includes the construction of four new neighborhoods – one of which is South Glilot.

The plan was designed by a team led by architect Uri Mazor from the Mazor-First Architects and Planners firm, and managed by the Waxman Govin Geva (WXG) Group engineering.

“I am really satisfied and happy,” says architect Uri Mazor. “This is a plan that my father, in a different format, started. In 1997, in its early stages, it went through early stages of approval for a master plan, and then a detailed plan was put forward that was shelved. In retrospect, it’s good that it was shelved because we were starting over. The National Planning and Building Committee was very well-suited to this because the planning reality had changed a lot in terms of infrastructure. It’s not just the Metro, but also the light rail, which is in its early stages, and it is overall infrastructure, like electricity and gas, and also different perceptions of the place. It is a gateway to the metropolitan region and not a suburb.

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“In the past, the concept in terms of transport was that the Hashalom and Arlozorov stations were the center and heart to which transportation from anywhere in the country was supposed to reach. The perception today, and this is based on precedents from around the world, is that there are gateways to the metropolitan region and you don’t always have to reach the center. Pi Glilot will be the northern hub, and Ben Zvi (south Tel Aviv) will be the southern gateway.

“The planning is transit-oriented development,” says Mazor, who was in charge of preparing the plan. “This district does not rely on private transport but on public transport and in a way that makes it accessible to cyclists and pedestrians. The sidewalks will be wide.

“The original plan was for 12,000 housing units and today we have reached 19,000 housing units. This happened following the approval of TAMA 70 and following a guide published for compact public buildings that will allow schools to be built on floors. It is important to note that the building guide is only relevant within TAMA 70, and only in areas that are suitable for it in terms of proportions.”

The plan includes low construction alongside towers. We no longer see many contemporary plans with less than 10-floors in Greater Tel Aviv.

Mazor: The VATMAL has an agenda that we appreciate of combining categories and pushing for a minimum of 50% of the buildings to be up to 10-floors, and high-rise construction to be tall. There has been a very big effort on our part to adapt this and we succeeded.

“Today it is commonly thought that 11-12-floor buildings are the most expensive in terms of distributing the costs to the tenants, and therefore there is low-rise construction, and then buildings of more than 14-floors.”

There has also been a serious environmental campaign against the plans, because of the Afeka Caves and the Daffodil Park.

“The entire southeastern quadrant of the plan is based on a park. It is a temporary park planted for the growth of street trees that will grow, but the plan preserves the park and the Afeka Caves and the winter pond. It is a very significant area.

“I learned from this plan to listen. Even to those who have contrary opinions and who are against me, some of the opinions also contradicted each other, so it’s impossible to accept them all anyway. But you need to listen to the authorities and the environmentalists and the residents.

“We came to this from a special place, but we put the old plan aside and started right from scratch. It’s like an exercise in architecture school. In fact, in these five years, the plan has become better. In the first discussion, 1,700 units were added, and now 800 units have been added, and that’s a better use of the land.”

“A major step in response to the housing needs of the country”

ILA director senior planning division Einav Ringler says, “The plan, which will soon be put into effect, is fully coordinated with the Metro that will serve it and enables a very high-quality, green, urban and innovative district. Promoting the plan is a direct continuation of the implementation of the ILA’s policy to promote the planning and marketing of housing units and commercial and office areas throughout the country.”

ILA Tel Aviv region director Tali Morali says, “The plan constitutes the basis for significant cooperation and a roof agreement signed with the Ramat Hasharon Municipality. The implementation of the plan will enable a large addition of housing units for the economy and contribute to the renewal of the area into a developed and high-quality area.”

VATMAL chair Rabbi Nathan Elnatan says, “Approval of the plan in South Glilot is a key step in responding to the country’s housing needs. This is an innovative district, planned around public transport, which combines homes, jobs and green spaces and creates a high-quality and balanced urban space that will provide a solution for future generations.”

VATMAL planner Etti Efrati Aryeh says, “The Glilot plan is a groundbreaking flagship plan from an urban and environmental perspective, which will create a district based on public transport, which preserves and promotes the special urban nature of the area, and brings tens of thousands of housing units within reach of the heart of demand areas.”

Ramat Hasharon Municipality: The Planning and Building Committee acted without transparency and with bullying”

Ramat Hasharon Mayor Yitzhak Rochberger says, “The National Planning and Building Committee is taking advantage of its power of authority in order to harm the values of nature and with them the quality of life of the residents of Ramat Hasharon and the region, now and in the future. On the day that the State Comptroller publishes a very serious report on the shortcomings in the government’s work with local authorities, we are witnessing another abject failure, which also stems from the attempt to overrun local government.

“The General Planning and Building Committee acted without consultation, with a lack of transparency and bullying, and without giving the Ramat Hasharon Municipality the information, plans and documents required so that we could respond to its actions, while canceling the plan submitted by the municipality, and doubling the scale of planned construction from 8,700 units to 19,500 units. This is improper conduct that should be investigated by the State Comptroller’s Office.”

The Society for the Protection of Nature adds, “The Society for the Protection of Nature welcomes the major improvements that were made in the South Glilot plan, following the significant and groundbreaking work done by the local community, with the assistance and cooperation of the Society for the Protection of Nature.

The plan incorporated principles of sustainable planning that emerged in the Society for the Protection of Nature’s detailed nature survey report, including preserving the main southeastern quadrant of the area, called the Glilot Eco Park, as an ecological park, with an emphasis on its continuity, including the different lands in the area, the Afeka Caves complex, and the entire area of the new floodplains and winter pools. The plan will also include an ecological transition to the nature park north of the Neve Gan neighborhood, and will preserve a certain area for the concentrations of daffodils in the Daffodil Valley, and it will also preserve part of the unique kurkar ridge in the western part of the area.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 4, 2025.

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