Court Voids 4.8 Million Shekel Arnona Hike Imposed on Nursery by Kiryat Ata
Haifa District Court canceled a 4.85 million shekel arnona tax bill issued to a nursery by Kiryat Ata, ruling the 250% rate hike discriminatory and custom-tailored.
The Haifa District Court partially granted a petition filed by a nursery against the Kiryat Ata municipality following an extraordinary surge in its annual property tax (arnona) bill, which skyrocketed from approximately 31,000 shekels to about 4.85 million shekels. Judge Tamar Naot-Pri ruled that the rate was unreasonable, discriminatory, and custom-tailored specifically for the nursery.
The petitioner holds a vast plot of land that was once within the jurisdiction of the Zevulun Regional Council. Following municipal boundary adjustments, the area was transferred to Kiryat Ata. In December 2022, the municipality sent the nursery an arnona assessment for 2023 totaling 4,854,347 shekels. The bulk of the charge—about 4.8 million shekels—stemmed from the classification of some 98,000 square meters as a "greenhouse/nursery" in a newly designated "Area 40," at a rate of 49 shekels per square meter.
Legal Arguments and Court Ruling
By comparison, in the previous year, the nursery paid the regional council a total of 31,420 shekels. Even within Kiryat Ata itself, the gap was substantial: the greenhouse rate in all other areas stood at only about 20 shekels per square meter. The nursery refused to accept the massive hike and filed an administrative petition, arguing that the rate was extortionate, unreasonable, and discriminatory, set in violation of the municipality's commitment to preserve arnona rates for areas where agricultural use continues.
The municipality countered that the activity on the site is commercial and exhibits characteristics of "industrial agriculture," and that it actually favored the nursery by classifying it as a greenhouse rather than as industry, which would have carried an even higher rate. Furthermore, the municipality argued that no other properties in the city resemble this complex, justifying the different rate.
"This is a nearly personal tariff, predetermined to fit the petitioner, and effectively acts as a business-skewed rate," Judge Naot-Pri emphasized in her ruling.
The court ordered the cancellation of the relevant sub-classification and instructed the municipality to amend its arnona order to remove the discrimination and unreasonableness. The municipality was also ordered to pay the nursery 10,000 shekels in legal costs.
