An agreement has been signed between Adam Teva V’Din and the developers and apartment owners of the Sea & Sun complex on the northern beachfront of Tel Aviv. The agreement is the first step to restoring to the public a valuable piece of the Mediterranean shoreline.
In response to a lawsuit filed by Adam Teva V’Din in 1998, the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court accepted our arguments and in 2002 ordered apartment owners and the Aviv Construction Company to restore the beachfront, illegally encroached upon, to its natural state.
After stalling and then appealing to the District Court, Sea & Sun’s attorneys asked Adam Teva V’Din to negotiate a practicable solution. After months of mediation conducted by Per Visner, deputy mayor of Tel Aviv, agreement was reached in September 2005.
Our lawsuit against Sea & Sun was one of the first public actions protesting illegal coastal construction during the real estate boom of the 1990s.
Eli Ben Ari, Adam Teva V’Din’s attorney who filed the Sea & Sun case, points out that the massive complex should never have been built within the 100-meter construction-free coastal zone in the first place. The absence at the time of any stringent legal framework allowed planning authorities to turn a blind eye to Sea & Sun’s flagrant violations of planning norms.
Extensive earthworks, walls, private gardens, barriers and a leveling of a wide stretch of the sandstone cliffs in front of Sea & Sun combined to turn the complex into an eyesore much reviled by the public as a ‘land grab’ of public spaces. Its notoriety was actually helpful to Adam Teva V’Din and the Coastal Forum of NGOs in persuading lawmakers to enact the Coastline Protection Law in 2004. Moreover, the long-running lawsuit sent a clear message to other potential developers that the public would not tolerate destruction of public beaches for private dwellings.
The developers, Aviv Construction Co., have now undertaken to restore the area within 12 months of receiving permits. Landscape rehabilitation is estimated to cost around $1 million, and the City of Tel Aviv will undertake other infrastructure improvements at the public beach at the same time. The restoration project will be overseen by a marine geologist experienced in coastline protection.
As Ben Ari notes, “The agreement presents the best practicable solution to this particular usurpation of the shoreline. It’s a clear win for the public.”
