Tama 35 is a national master plan whose overall goal is to guide the spatial development in Israel during the first two decades of the 21st century. Tama 35 aims to maintain a balance between Israel's development needs and the wish to preserve open spaces.
Definition
Tama 35 is a national master plan1 whose overall goal is to guide the spatial development in Israel during the first two decades of the 21st century. The plan relies on the theoretical base established in the "Israel 2020" document and applies lessons learnt from Tama 31.2
Context
National master plan (Tama) defines the spatial planning of the entire area of the state.3 It addresses the purposes and uses of land, spatial infrastructures, land and sites preservation as well as future development based on demographic forecasts. The plan's exhaustive nature makes it crucial in the context of regional development.
Goals and implementation
Tama 35 aims to maintain a balance between Israel's development needs and the wish to preserve open spaces and the environment while taking future generations into consideration. The plan's guiding concept is 'concentrated dispersion' with a focus on preventing urban sprawl into open spaces. In other words, the plan prioritizes contiguous development - within or alongside existing urban centers.
The plan divides the country into planning regions, according to planning categories with each category governed by different directives for development. The plan defines four metropolitan areas - Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba, which are divided by non-urban "textures". Those textures - rural, coastal and conservation - are spaces defined as conservation worthy on different levels, according to their characteristics.
The long term view of Tama 35 seeks to assure the implementation of its planning principles with a series of additional policy instruments.4 At the same time, the plan provides some planning flexibility by a supervision system once every four years.
1 Approved by the Israeli Government in 2005.
2 Tama 31 is the previous National master plan approved in 1993.
3 See Planning and Construction Law, 1965, Chapter 3.
4 The policy instruments includes, among other things, marking socio-economic policy, prioritizing the development of Jerusalem, the Galilee and the Negev, Encouraging cooperation among local authorities etc.