## Facts

- Israel’s National Plan on Building set construction limits in rural areas to prevent development that would disrupt the area’s natural character.
- The national plan included a narrow exception for certain designated tourist areas: a planning commission could authorize construction exceeding the rural limits only if it (1) provided written reasons and (2) obtained approval from the National Planning Council in advance.
- The Local Planning Commission of Shomron approved a plan to build a large service facility in a rural area.
- The planned facility included a gas station, retail stores, a car wash, a tire-repair facility, and a restaurant.
- Supporters of the plan cited expected economic benefits for the surrounding region.
- The local planning commission did not request or obtain approval from the National Planning Council before approving the plan.
- Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED), an environmental public-interest organization, filed a petition seeking to invalidate the approval because the required national-level approval had not been obtained.
- The local planning commission argued that the project did not exceed the national plan’s rural-area limits and therefore did not trigger the exception procedure requiring National Planning Council approval.

## Issues

1. Whether a local planning commission may approve a large service facility in a rural area without first obtaining National Planning Council approval when the national plan requires such approval for development exceeding rural limits.
2. Whether the facility’s size and mix of uses placed it within the national plan’s category of development that requires written reasons and prior National Planning Council approval.
3. Whether asserted local economic benefits can justify approval despite failure to follow the national plan’s mandatory approval process.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Israel held that the National Plan on Building is binding on local planning authorities and that local bodies may not approve plans in a way that bypasses conditions the national plan makes mandatory.
- The Court rejected the local planning commission’s attempt to avoid national review by characterizing the project as within ordinary rural limits where, in substance, the plan fell within the national plan’s restrictions and exception structure.
- Because the local planning commission did not obtain prior approval from the National Planning Council (and did not satisfy the national plan’s required justification process), its approval was unlawful.
- The Court set aside the local planning commission’s approval of the plan.

## Legal Principles

- National outline plans have binding force within Israel’s planning hierarchy; local planning commissions lack authority to approve plans that conflict with national-plan requirements.
- When a national plan permits departure from rural construction limits only upon specified conditions (such as written reasons and prior approval by the National Planning Council), those conditions are prerequisites to a valid approval.
- In determining whether a proposal triggers national-plan limits and procedures, decisionmakers must look to the project’s practical character, scope, and intensity, not only the label used by the approving authority.
- Economic benefits may be considered within planning judgment, but they cannot excuse a failure to obtain approvals that the governing national plan requires.

## Conclusion

Israel Union for Environmental Defense v. Local Planning Commission of Shomron held that a local planning commission lacked authority to approve a large rural service facility without first obtaining the National Planning Council’s approval required by the national plan for development exceeding rural-area limits; because the local commission did not follow that required process, the approval was invalid.


Israel Union for Environmental Defense v. Local Planning Commission of Shomron, Civ. App. 8116/99, 58(5) PD 196 (2001)