Netaniyahu gave a speech today:
The second thing (to do) is reform of the planning and building committees to simplify the bureaucracy which today is simply intolerable, it's hell.You are telling it to me?
Yesterday it was very hot. A neighbor of Beth Ha-Shech pastry factory in Natania's Old Industrial Area called me (As remembered, Beth Ha Sheh owners were gunned down by the local extorsion maffia) because of permitting difficulties. They are an ethnic catering kitchen going by the name of "Onions and Figs", their speciality. The red pepper sauce (pic) is also some ethnic thing. The kitchen was a steamy hell, temperature 50 Celsius, and the owners, Iraqi Jews, were working like desperate animals. I am always impressed by how hard Israeli Jews work for their living. How can I take money from these people?
PS: That is the question. How can extract money from these people?
6 comments:
You may feel guilty, but apparently the bureaucrats do not.
I have one question, a few days ago I said that Israel has a unitary state but I think you disagreed with me. When you go through the building permitting process, do you deal with the national government in Jerusalem or do you deal with municipal authorities? Could you describe the process, or would that require a book?
Several tomes.
The permiting process is a multilayered laberynth. There is a National MasterPlan valid for five years. Froem the masterplan derive regional plans administered by regional committees. Regional committees deal with projects approved at local levels. All the ministries are involved, and have to give an opinion. I sat on many committees as representative of the water sector, and never had enough time to read all the material and to understand what were the issues. No one does. One old fuck had one and pemanent issue: how will the project contribute to the salinization of the aquifers? He demanded to see written opinions by the Hydrological Service, delaying automatically all the projects for six months, the time and effort to get a written opinion from the Hydrological Service. The hydrologists are specialists who have notime nor understanding of zoning or anything. They usually were negative on all kind of industrial projects. They also rejected projects in the Negev desert, where there is no aquifer.
Since the issues were not understood, the safest way was to delay and ask for more material. Each session dealt with 30 or 40 projects. The only real debates were on Aramaic linguisics, an esoteric subject beloved by Israeli intelligentzia of my age.
That red stuff looks a little like something called Muhamora (I'm not sure of the spelling) that they serve at the Middle Eastern section of the food court of our local Whole Foods supermarket. It has red peppers, walnuts, and some other stuff in it. It's quite tasty.
I did some googling on the building permitting process here in the states and I came up with two East Coast links, one for New Haven, CT and another for Orange County, FL.
The link for New Haven is almost a parody of American liberalism with its concern for wetlands and even requiring approval by the state traffic commission for places with 150 parking spaces or more.
Anyway, I looked up the building approval process for the core city of my metro area, Phoenix (population 2+ million)and I found this this and this.
I linked to the city of Phoenix because so much of what happens here in the valley revolves around that city government and the county government. A good example is water treatment. A couple of miles from where I live Phoenix built the Val Vista water treatment plant. Officially the VVWTP is a joint venture between Phoenix and Mesa, but in reality Phoenix operates the plant, maintains it and Mesa just buys a fraction of its output. This is another example of what I am talking about. Personally, I think Phoenix should be broken up.
My subjective impression is that the larger the city the more complex the permitting process, so it would make sense that the Israeli metropolitan area would have such a complex permitting process. Mesa's process seems simpler, but I have no clue whether there is difference.
A little further, but I know that developments over a certain size are required to prove that they have a 100 year supply of water before being approved either by the city, or by the county in unincorporated areas.
The water can be purchased from local landowners, come from wells or be provided by magic elves but there must be water.
Second, I think the process might be easier for large industrial customers like semiconductor plants. As long as the neighbors do not object I wouldn't be surprised if city leaders would bend over backwards for such a project.
Magic elves. I may use the idea in my next permit submittal.
Semi plants are an eco disaster. They produce toxic metal waste water, metals you never heard of.
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