We wish to inform you that an important meeting took place yesterday (13.06.17) at the offices of the planning administration in Jerusalem on the topic of the functioning of an accessible licensing system (technological and administrative aspects). The meeting was attended by IOCEA representatives and its legal counsel, as well as planning administration officials - Ms. Yael Karma, head of accessible licensing department, Adv. Dror Levinger, head of planning and construction guidelines and permits department, and Adv. Yaek Adoram, legal counsel of the planning administration. Relevant data and issues were presented during the meeting, in a detailed presentation prepared by the IOCEA team in advance.
This meeting was initiated by the IOCEA following numerous complaints from members across Israel concerning the manner in which the accessible licensing system currently operates, and following a detailed letter that was sent to the planning administration by the legal counsels of the IOCEA.
During the meeting, IOCEA’s representative presented the planning administration officials numerous problems 'in the field' during regular work, arising from the aforementioned system (system lag and encumbrance, limited delivery volume, redundancy while feeding files, requests for minor changes, footnotes, redundancy in submissions, disorganized rejections, lack of discretion, etc.).
We are glad to report that our pleas were given careful attention by the heads of the planning administration, who expressed sincere understanding of the difficulties reported. Head of the accessible licensing department agreed to participate in a special meeting with IOCEA members, and to hear out the members’ complaints and other issues that may come up. The planning administration also promised to try and promote practical solutions to problems under their jurisdiction.
In addition, we were told that the planning administration will soon be publishing a guideline manual for local committees, instructing local committee representatives to operate discretion and logic in reviewing submissions through the systems, and refrain from automatically dismissing submissions with negligible flaws.
Needless to say, the IOCEA will provide its members with the aforementioned guidelines as soon as they are published.
The organization will continue monitoring the matter and maintain contact with the planning administration representatives.
Sincerely,
Lior Bar-On, Adv.
General Manager