Tartous Informal Settlements to be Zoned Under Urban Planning Law

The Executive Office of the Tartous City Council proposed in March to establish 14 new zoning areas in the city under the provisions of the Urban Planning and Development Law No. 23 of 2015. The Executive Office sent the proposal to the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment for the approval to zone the areas, which mostly contain informal settlements .

The proposed zoning areas include 11 locations south of Tartous, and three locations to the north of the city. Information about the informal settlements in these areas is scarce and conflicting. About 100,000 people live in these informal settlements, the oldest of which appeared about five decades ago, according to figures published by the official press. Residents of these informal settlements are prohibited from conducting subdivision and unification transactions for their properties or obtaining building and rehabilitation permits.

Days before, the Central Region branch of the General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES) completed the topographic survey plans for these 14 areas and delivered them to the Tartous City Council. The company was supposed to have completed these plans in December 2019, according to contract No. 19 signed with the Tartous City Council in December 2018. In May 2023, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, through the governor of Tartous, instructed the engineering company to expedite the completion and delivery of the topographic plans for these areas. The engineering company justified the delay in delivering the plans due to the conditions associated with the spread of the coronavirus and the fuel crisis in the country.

The proposed zoning areas in the southern part of Tartous city are referred to as the Southern Expansion Areas. Several decisions were made to zone these areas in 2006 and 2008. In fact, the Southern Expansion Areas were included in the Tartous City’s General Master Plan issued in 2008. However, a disagreement occurred at that time between the Tartous Governorate and the Ministry of Housing regarding whether the informal settlements in these areas could be considered part of the urban expansion areas of Tartous city. This dispute hindered the work in the new urban expansion areas.

In March 2016, the Tartous City Council issued Decision No. 45, which approved the zoning of informal settlements in the Southern Expansion Areas under the provisions of Law No. 23 of 2015. In May 2016, the City Council issued Decision No. 67 to zone locations outside the Southern Expansion under the provisions of Law No. 23. The Executive Office of the Tartous Governorate Council ratified both decisions from the City Council, under its Decision No. 773 in October 2016.

Law No. 23 of 2015 outlined three options for dealing with informal settlements: zone them under Article Two of its provisions, subject them to the Real Estate Development and Investment Law No. 15 of 2008 (which was replaced by the Investment Law No. 2 of 2023), or apply the prevailing expropriation law.

As of today, it is unclear which option will be adopted for zoning these areas. Damascus might lean towards applying Section Two of Law No. 23 because this section covers the zoning aspects, which involve subdividing land into zoning plots by the administrative unit. This section of the law could be applied in several cases, including urban expansion areas that are included in the zoning plans, as is the case with the Southern Expansion in Tartous city.

If Section Two is applied, Law No. 23 of 2015 grants the administrative unit the right to freely deduct up to 40 percent of the properties in the area if the property is located outside the provincial centres and in rural areas, and 50 percent if the property is within the provincial centres. The law justifies this free deduction by the benefit that the property owner receives as a result of their property entering a zoned or divided area, and the subsequent increase in the property’s market value. Additionally, Law No. 23 of 2015 considers the zoning area a legal entity that replaces all owners and rights holders within it, and the zoning process concludes with the distribution of its properties to the rights holders according to their shares.

Rights holders in the zoning area do not have the right to choose the locations of their new plots within the zoning plans, through a process called compulsory land readjustment. Law No. 23 of 2015 also requires beneficiaries of the zoning process to bear the costs of the infrastructure built by the administrative unit. These costs are considered a priority debt, and the new plots cannot be transferred to their owners until the debt is paid.

Under Law No. 23 of 2015, a tenant occupying a property in the area under the old Rent Law No. 111 of 1952 and its amendments, is granted 40 percent of the property’s share in the new zoning area, with 60 percent going to the property owner. However, Law No. 23 of 2015 does not recognise any rights for occupants and owners of properties built on state-owned lands, except for the ruins of their homes. They may be granted the right to apply for alternative housing, which is not free, if available from the administrative unit.