After years of foot-dragging by the Tel Aviv municipality, the local planning and building committee has hammered out a program to add two and a half stories to apartment buildings throughout the city. The move comes after years of delays in implementing National Master Plan 38 for reinforcing apartment buildings against earthquakes. The plan will breathe new life into property development and investment in the city. The plan encourages apartment owners and developers to renovate and reinforce older buildings, with rights to build new apartments above the roofline or in empty space on the ground floor. This would be an incentive to builders in lieu of cash. The program allows for an extra two and a half floors in buildings in Jaffa and the city's east and south. But the plan allows up to seven and a half new floors in buildings on Ibn Gabirol Street, as well as the demolition of buildings in the White City district not earmarked for preservation. High-rises would be built in their stead. The plan wasn't exactly met with enthusiasm at City Hall, and officials led by Mayor Ron Huldai had misgivings.
