Urban Planning
The urban environment of Tel Aviv has developed in three difinitive stages throughout the city's short history. Changes in government and massive population influxes have been the most pressing issues for urban planners.
Stage 1
Between 1909 (when the city was founded) and 1925, Tel Aviv did not recognize that it would become the major urban center of Israel and did not plan to accomodate large population and economic growth. Its founders, Ahuzat Bayit and Nahlat Binyamin, intended for Tel Aviv (then called Ahuzat Bayit) to be an ideal "Garden City". Based on the English model and a large part of Zionism and communal living, the Garden City now known as Tel Aviv was originally intended to function as a residential area for Jews working in Jaffa.
The location of Tel Aviv was chosen partly based on its low land cost and also for its proximity to the main roads leading to Jaffa. Physically, this location was not prime for a large urban center. It was too far from the coast to effectively use water transportation and surrounded by hills that blocked the cool sea breezes. Most of the original settlement was also located on sand dunes with problematic ridges and valleys. "Tel Aviv developed in relation to this topography of ridges and valleys, particularly the street stystem. Most of the main streets run longitudinally along the valleys; perpendicular streets followed the openings of gullies running towards the sea." (Efrat, 58)
As the population of the small settlement grew, many other neighborhoods under Zionist ideology formed in Ahuzat Bayit's vacinity. Most were well-planned with the streets laid out in a grid pattern and with a high percentage of open space. By 1925, the population of Tel Aviv was at 34,000. Up to this point, no comprehensive plans had been made to control the patterns of urban growth and land alocation was mostly haphazard. Previous riots between Arabs in Jaffa and Jews in Tel Aviv had led the two settlements to cut ties with each other. Tel Aviv no longer relied on Jaffa for economic functions which were developing rapidly in Tel Aviv. These changes led the residents of Tel Aviv to recognize that an overall plan for the city would be necessary.