Damascus Governorate Issues Detailed Zoning Plan for Jobar
The Damascus governorate announced in late June that it had issued Detailed Zoning Plan No. 106 for the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus. The formal descriptions for all lands within the new plan were amended to “under regulation,” which means that construction for residential or commercial use or for public services is permitted. Previously, these lands were either protected zones, agricultural areas, or residential expansion zones.
Under the Urban Planning Law, which was issued in Decree No. 5 of 1982 and amended by Law No. 41 of 2002, a detailed zoning plan is one that includes the main and subsidiary roads, pedestrian walkways, public spaces, and other details for land usage. The plan does not contradict the general master plan or construction codes.
The Damascus governorate invited residents to review the detailed zoning plan, which is on public display in the lobby of the governorate’s building, and submit any objections within 30 days. The governorate’s regional committee, which is part of the Regional Planning Commission, will then study these objections. Each governorate has a regional committee affiliated to the Regional Planning Commission. After deciding on the objections, the Minister of Public Works and Housing would issue a decree including the detailed zoning plan. Finally, six months later, a presidential decree will be issued adopting the plan.
While the total area of Jobar was previously less than 250 hectares, the new plan added neighbouring areas that administratively belonged to the Damascus and Rural Damascus governorates, for a new total area of 304 hectares. These newly added areas include parts of Qaboun, which already belonged to the Damascus governorate, as well as parts of Arbeen, Zamalka, and Ayn Tarma, which previously belonged to Rural Damascus.
Since 2018, when regime forces recaptured opposition strongholds around Damascus, the Damascus governorate has expanded its administrative borders at the expense of the Rural Damascus governorate, especially along the northeast edges of the capital city.
Historically, Jobar was a small village in East Ghouta surrounded by swathes of farmland. Jobar was annexed to the capital city in 1968 under the Damascus master plan drawn by French architect Michel Écochard. The neighbourhood has seen rapid urban expansion since the 1970s, most of it informal and atop agricultural lands.
Opposition forces controlled Jobar from 2012 to 2018. During this time, the neighbourhood became the first line of defence for opposition-held East Ghouta, with rebels building many fortifications, most notably trenches and tunnels. Jobar was the site of intense battles and faced aerial bombardments that destroyed many of the neighbourhood’s buildings. Finally, after the regime’s last military campaign on the area in early 2018, the remaining residents were forcibly displaced to northern Syria alongside residents of East Ghouta. Since then, regime forces have prevented people from entering Jobar while continuing a low-scale campaign to demolish buildings and remove rubble.
The new detailed zoning plan was based on Decree No. 5 of 1982 and Écochard’s general plan for Damascus, which was approved by Ministerial Decree No. 2401 of 1968. The job of studying detailed zoning plans usually goes to the General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES), an affiliate of the Minister of Public Works and Housing. However, the Higher Institute for Regional Planning, which is affiliated with Damascus University, took on the task of studying the new Jobar plan. The plan was then approved by the Damascus governorate council in Decree No. 44 on September 7, 2021. It is unclear why the governorate delayed the announcement of the detailed zoning plan until June 2022.
The Damascus governorate’s Director of Urban Planning said that the implementation area for Detailed Zoning Plan No. 106 would be subject to the provisions of Planning and Urban Development Law No. 23 of 2015. What he meant by this is unclear, as Law No. 23 gives administrative units several options for regulating informal housing areas. First, an administrative unit may apply the provisions of Law No. 23 to such areas. Second, it may apply the provisions of Real Estate Development and Investment Law No. 15 of 2008 and its amendments based on an agreement between the real estate developer in a given area and the existing property owners or between the real estate developer and local administrative authorities. Finally, an administrative unit may choose to apply the provisions of the Expropriation Law in force in order to implement a zoning plan for the area in question.
The degree to which local authorities will choose to implement Law No. 23 in Jobar will not become clear until the final decree approving the neighbourhood’s new detailed zoning plan is issued.
Under Law No. 23, land is designated for construction according to both a general master plan and a detailed zoning plan through one of two ways: subdivision by the landowner or regulation by the local administrative body. In both cases, the implementation of Law No. 23 leads to the eviction of residents of that land without providing them alternative housing.
Law No. 23 also entitles the administrative unit to the free deduction of up to 50 percent of private properties in governorate centres in return for the benefit of adding those properties to the zoning area.
Finally, Law No. 23 stipulates that, as part of the zoning process, an administrative unit forms a compulsory land readjustment committee tasked with giving rights holders their shares of property in the same location as their original properties or nearby. As part of this readjustment process, rights holders within the area undergoing regulation receive land designated for construction within that same area as a form of compensation for losing their original properties.
A section of the Jobar zoning plan
Source: the Damascus governorate