The Second Aliyah led to further expansion. In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Arye Weiss and banded together to form the Ahuzat Bayit (lit. "homestead") society. The society's goal was to form a "Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene". The urban planning for the new city was influenced by the ideas of the Garden city movement. In 1908, the group purchased 5 hectares (12 acres) of dunes northeast of Jaffa. Following this purchase, Meir Dizengoff, who later became Tel Aviv's first mayor, decided to join Ahuzat Bayit.[ His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with the Arabs. Eventually David Ben Gurion would announce the creation of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948 from Meir Dizengoff's home in Tel Aviv.
In April 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a desolate sand dune on what is now Rothschild Boulevard to parcel out the land by lottery using seashells. This gathering is considered the official date of the establishment of Tel Aviv, although some neighbourhoods, such as Kerem HaTeimanim, already existed. The lottery was organised by Akiva Arye Weiss, president of the building society. The names of the families were inscribed on white shells and the plot number on shells of a different color. Within a year, Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, Yehuda Halevi, Lilienblum, and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed. At the end of Herzl Street, a plot was allocated for a new building for the Herzliya Hebrew High School, founded in Jaffa in 1906. On 21 May 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted. Tel Aviv was planned as an independent Hebrew city with wide streets and boulevards, running water at each house and street lights.
By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to more than 1 square kilometre (247 acres). However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman authorities expelled the Jews of Jaffa and Tel Aviv. A report published in The New York Times by United States Consul Garrels in Alexandria, Egypt described the Jaffa deportation of early April 1917. The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population.