Damascus Governorate Moves to Include and Re-Zone Darayya

The Damascus Governorate is moving to include towns and cities from neighbouring Rural Damascus into its urban, service, and administrative scope, as part of the so-called “Greater Damascus” project. In this context, Darayya has emerged as one of the most prominent cities proposed for annexation and for re-zoning, after suffering massive destruction during the war. The governorate considers the reconstruction of Darayya conditional on the involvement of private investment companies, according to governorate sources.

The Damascus Governorate is currently studying a new zoning plan for Darayya, which is still technically part of the Rural Damascus governorate and borders the Damascus districts of Mazzeh and Kafr Sousseh, local sources said. The new plan proposes converting large parts of the destroyed city into residential complexes, modelled on the Kafr Sousseh district development, to be built by private Gulf construction companies. The Kafr Sousseh development dates back to the 1980s and is considered one of the most prestigious neighbourhoods in Damascus, with its high-rise residential towers, the Carlton Hotel, numerous large shopping centres, and central government buildings, such as the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the People’s Assembly.

In 2007, Darayya was home to around 255,000 residents, according to official statistics. The city witnessed peaceful anti-regime protests in early 2011 before falling under the control of armed opposition forces in 2012. It was placed under a severe siege by Assad regime forces, subjected to heavy bombardment campaigns, and ultimately saw the forced displacement of its entire population in 2016, alongside widespread destruction. In 2018, the Directorate of Urban Planning at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing discussed four proposed zoning plans within Darayya. That same year, the Rural Damascus Governorate’s executive office announced that the zoning plan for Darayya was complete.

In 2018, Darayya was divided into three zones based on levels of destruction: Zone A, which suffered limited damage and was later opened for residents to return; Zone B, moderately damaged, with a timetable set for residents’ return after infrastructure rehabilitation and debris removal; and Zone C, severely damaged and requiring full reconstruction. Based on this division, residents of Zone A were granted permits to restore their homes, while residents of Zones B and C were in effect barred from returning until the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. In August 2018, Rural Damascus allowed residents to return, only if they presented documents proving property ownership within zone A in the  city and obtained prior security approval from the Fourth Division, which controlled the area. Partial returns began in mid-2019, and by 2021, about 25,000 people had returned, according to local estimates.

In mid-August, a meeting was held between officials of the Damascus and Rural Damascus governorates to determine Darayya’s future and annex it to Damascus under “Greater Damascus,” local sources confirmed. Under the “Greater Damascus” project, towns, cities, and lands belonging to Rural Damascus would be incorporated into the Damascus governorate. This would  include annexing Darayya and Moadamiyat Al-Sham from the west, Tadamon and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad from the south, and part of East Ghouta.

Sources in the Damascus Governorate said they believe that Darayya, where 90 percent of the buildings are destroyed in some areas, can only be rebuilt through private domestic and foreign companies. They justify this by pointing to the transitional government’s limited financial and logistical capabilities, expecting that reconstruction will proceed through agreements with Gulf companies under the investment law. The current direction is therefore to sign reconstruction contracts with such companies while safeguarding property owners’ rights, either through shares or direct compensation. The sources did not provide further details, as the matter is still under discussion.

The sources explained that the governorate’s efforts are currently focused on drafting a new plan for heavily damaged areas while assessing less damaged areas based on the 2018 plan. They justify this by noting that around 200,000 people are currently living in Darayya’s less affected districts, making it difficult to secure housing for them if the entire city were redeveloped at once. The sources stressed that all these matters remain under discussion.

The governorate has prioritised Darayya and is working to study the proposed plan quickly, with proposals to return land to the city that had been expropriated and annexed for the Basilia City project under Decree No. 66 of 2012. No construction has begun on these lands to date, so this is not expected to affect the Basilia project.

Notably, discussion of the new plan for Darayya appears to fall entirely to the Damascus Governorate, amid reports of a potential future role for the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. Legally, the governorate cannot draw up a detailed plan for Darayya on its own. The process of drafting and approving any zoning plan, whether general or detailed, requires the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, under Legislative Decree No. 5 of 1982, to set urban planning principles to meet population needs within available resources as part of comprehensive regional planning. After that, the administrative unit (the governorate or city council) prepares a planning programme within those urban planning principles and uses it to create a preliminary vision for the general zoning plan, which is submitted to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing for approval or amendment. While the administrative unit is responsible for developing the general regulatory plan under Decree No. 5 of 1982, the General Company for Engineering Studies, part of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, is responsible for preparing detailed plans under Law No. 12 of 2019. Darayya’s situation requires detailed zoning plans.