Community Drafts Master Plan for Rebuilding Damascus’s Jobar

Nearly a year after the fall of the Assad regime, the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus – one of the capital’s most devastated districts during the war – still lacks any clear plan to enable residents to return and begin reconstruction. In response, the Board of Trustees, a body formed by local residents, has outlined a plan to reorganise Jobar. This local initiative came as a reaction to what residents see as the authorities’ neglect of their suffering, and included street protests and public statements demanding immediate practical steps to rebuild the neighbourhood.

Jobar lies on the eastern edge of Damascus, serving as the city’s gateway to Eastern Ghouta. It was originally an agricultural village belonging to Ghouta before being annexed to Damascus in 1968 as part of the urban expansion plan designed by French architect Michel Écochard. In the decades that followed, the area transformed into a densely populated residential district. It contained several prominent religious and historical landmarks, including the Omari Mosque and the Jobar Synagogue, which was almost entirely destroyed during the war. From 2012, the area came under the control of opposition armed groups and witnessed devastating battles that erased most of its buildings until it was retaken by Assad’s forces in 2018. Since then, it has remained uninhabited up to the fall of the Assad regime.

In 2022, the Damascus Governorate prepared Zoning Plan No. 106 for Jobar under the provisions of Urban Planning and Cities Development Law No. 23 of 2015, which allows administrative units to expropriate up to 50 percent of private properties in provincial centres for public facilities. The plan aimed to rehabilitate and rezone the neighbourhood, expanding its administrative boundaries at the expense of adjacent areas in the Damascus countryside. It was later frozen after the fall of the Assad regime, prompting new efforts to prepare an alternative plan that better respects the interests of local residents.

Following the regime’s fall, residents of Jobar formed a community body called the Jobar Board of Trustees to coordinate with the Damascus Governorate on reconstruction through a liaison committee that meets regularly with the governorate’s technical committee, established by the governor to manage the Jobar file. Through an engineering committee composed of local engineers, the Board produced a new urban design proposing the reorganisation of Jobar into five residential zones, the rebuilding of damaged sections, and equal treatment of both informal and licensed housing with regard to property rights.

The Board’s spokesperson, Anas Al-Bakour, told The Syria Report that the proposal is based on the principle of comprehensive reconstruction while safeguarding residents’ property rights through a legal committee affiliated with the Board. He said their initiative constitutes a practical response to the governorate’s neglect, stressing that rebuilding Jobar will only be possible through a genuine partnership between both sides.

The Damascus Governorate’s delay in announcing its own zoning plan pushed dozens of residents to stage a protest in mid-October at Jobar’s entrance near Abbasiyyin Square. The demonstration was organised by the neighbourhood’s newly established Youth Association, composed of Jobar natives, in coordination with the Board of Trustees. A statement issued by the association expressed residents’ frustration at the continued marginalisation of their neighbourhood despite the sacrifices they made during the war, insisting that rebuilding Jobar must be a top priority for the governorate. The statement called for a clear timetable to begin reconstruction and for specific mechanisms to ensure both temporary and permanent returns of residents. Residents who had recently returned to the neighbourhood explained that the lack of any official plan meant they were still unable to repair their homes. They said the governorate’s ambiguous stance only prolongs their suffering and forces them to continue protesting.

The master plan prepared by the Board of Trustees covers the reconstruction of about 300 hectares of Jobar’s area, nearly half of which previously consisted of informal housing. The project proposes redistributing property rights to owners as housing units within the new zoned areas – in most cases not located on their original plots. The Board asserts that this mechanism is essential to ensure fairness in allocation and to achieve modern planning standards for the neighbourhood. Its legal committee will document individual property rights and oversee the allocation procedures once the plan is formally approved. The Board also notes that carrying out the project will require external funding or grants from friendly nations, as most residents cannot afford the costs of reconstruction.

The Board considers debris removal the first step in Jobar’s reconstruction, though it requires a special legal mechanism since most of the rubble lies on privately owned land. It proposes that the clearing of debris be financed by government entities or donor organisations, after which the materials would be recycled and their value used to establish a local fund dedicated to rebuilding the neighbourhood. Board members are also discussing the possibility of involving Arab and foreign companies specialised in recycling operations – not only in Jobar but across other devastated areas as well. A spokesperson emphasised that the presence of landmines on the outskirts of the neighbourhood remains one of the main obstacles to any fieldwork, noting that several international organisations have expressed willingness to provide equipment for their removal.