Changing the Zoning Plan in the Matter of Omarta
- Moreover, in the case of "Omarta", even after the zoning plan was changed to a residential designation, the municipality's request of November 5,2019 for approval of the transaction was again rejected in a letter dated March 12,2020 (see Appendix 4 to the company's summaries), in which the Ministry of Interior made it unequivocally clear that it would not approve agreements made according to an incompatible planning situation.
In this letter, it was noted that the municipality chose to "move ahead of the latest" and published a tender based on a plan that had not yet been approved, which led to a significant reduction in the financial consideration.
This is what is stated in that letter: (Chapter 3 of the letter):
"Beyond the specific issues that arose regarding the procedures for approving the transaction, it appears that the focus in our case is that the municipality chose to advance and publish a tender that does not correspond to the current planning situation, but is based on a plan in early planning proceedings that has not yet been approved (and even deposited), and includes a significant element of uncertainty. This temporary uncertainty, which the municipality could have overcome if it had waited with the publication of the tender until the plan was approved, leads to a significant reduction in the financial consideration received. This apparently stems from the municipality's cash flow distress, and therefore it prefers the possibility of obtaining relatively low sums now over the possibility of significantly larger revenues in the future."
- It was found that this letter, in its explicit version, removed from the agenda any interpretation that the municipality could have raised in relation to the position of the Minister of the Interior, when it was made unequivocal that even given the change in the zoning plan that applies to the land, it would not affect the position of the Ministry of the Interior, and that the Minister of the Interior would not approve such an agreement, all given the clear position of the Ministry of the Interior that a tender that does not conform to the planning situation should not be published.
However, as stated, this letter about the firm position presented to the Municipality was also hidden from the company in real time, and no mention of this letter was found in the framework of an affidavit by Adv. Cohen (on behalf of the Municipality) in the framework of this proceeding.