Adalah Files Appeal to National Council for Planning and Building Committee against Local Master Plan for Daliyat al-Carmel on the Ground that it Disregards the Rights of the Town’s Arab Residents
On 10 March 2008, Adalah submitted an appeal to the National Council for Planning and Building (NCPB) on behalf of 75 Arab citizens from the Arab Druze town of Daliyat al-Carmel, against a decision of the Regional Council for Planning and Building – Haifa Division to reject objections filed by residents of the town and to approve Local Master Plan 300/A’D. In the appeal, Adalah argued that the plan must be cancelled as it disregards the existing and future needs of the area, as well as the right of Arab citizens of Israel living in Daliyat al-Carmel to housing, and fails to provide them with basic services and suitable infrastructure. The appeal was submitted by Adalah’s Urban Planner Hana Hamdan and Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara.
According to the master plan in question, it essentially aims to “determine a policy for the development of the area in the early decades of the 21st Century.” However, as the appellants emphasized, it disregards the lack of existing shortage of housing and land in the town and fails to provide solutions for this growing problem. Currently, some houses are home to several family units and young married couples have no choice regarding their place of residence and are forced to use their families’ privately owned land.
The plan also excludes specific areas in the town with the result that hundreds of homes in the town are left virtually unrecognized and now face being demolished. As Adalah contended, “The state has not updated the master plan for the town that was approved over 30 years ago”. The plan replaces Local Master Plan 605/G, which was approved in 1978, and therefore does not take into account the significant changes on the ground that have occurred since that date.
Further, the master plan does not allocate sufficient land to allow for economic development. In fact, it precludes the establishment of a suitable industrial area by proposing to reduce the existing industrial area in the town by approximately 53 dunams, from 134 dunams to 81 dunams. This reduction will force some of the owners of factories and businesses that currently operate there to search for alternative locations, thereby compromising the future economic development and prosperity of the town.
The appellants demanded the cancellation of the current master plan and that it be redrafted in a transparent manner, in accordance with the law and planning principles. Specifically, they demanded the expansion of the development area for building contained in the plan, in a way that reflects the current reality and includes houses built outside of the demarcated development area. In addition the appellants demanded that the industrial area be expanded to allow for the economic development of the area. Finally, they demanded that agricultural land in the town should not be turned into an agricultural reserve area with stringent restrictions on its use, as proposed in the plan, but should continue to be used for agricultural purposes.