Dora compound: municipality backs away from capping the added area of the new apartments

The Netanya Municipality gave up its demand to cap the addition to the new apartments in the Dora compound, in Ramat Yadin in the south of the city. As a result, the Central District Planning and Building Appeals Committee determined that the addition will not be capped.

The plan in the compound replaces 88 old apartments in railway-style apartment blocks (binyanei rakevet) with 320 new apartments. The local committee approved it in January 2025, but made the approval conditional on each new apartment being larger than the old one by no more than 12 sq m, plus a balcony. The condition relied on a municipal policy document from 2019.

The residents appealed. In December 2025 the appeals committee rejected their request for permission to appeal, and they petitioned the Central District Court in Lod. In July the court accepted the petition and returned the matter to the district committee. The municipality reconsidered its position and announced that the 2019 policy does not apply to the plan, because the compound was first discussed in 2013 and was declared a pinui-binui (demolish and rebuild) compound that same year by a government decision. The parties filed an agreed notice, and the proceeding ended.

According to the residents' contracts with the developers, each new apartment will be at least 85 sq m, or the size of the old apartment plus 20 sq m, whichever is larger. Most of the old apartments are about 46 sq m, so some residents may receive an addition of up to about 40 sq m.

The municipality stated that this is a plan from 2013 and that the current compensation policy does not apply to it.