Multi-spot zoning: A chain of public-private development ventures in Tel Aviv

The paper discusses the cumulative aspects of flexible planning's engagement with massive public-private (PP) development ventures, tracing five ventures in Tel Aviv-Jaffa and analyzing each as a link in a chain of planning precedents. As in many other instances that materialized in this city, each venture was based on a spot-zoning elaboration of a planning deal that balanced cost and benefits for PP agencies. In each test case, public benefits and properties were bargained and official policies were modified. Neo-liberal policies have escalated planning flexibility, linking local multi-spot zoning with extreme luxury and increasingly high buildings. However, as citizens' criticism progressively questioned the legitimacy of PP planning, a judicial debate is now taking place concerning the definition and function of spatial planning. Focusing this debate and the urban planning tradition that led to it are proposed here as a way of evaluating the concrete assets of urban PP planning today.