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Salvation Government Studies Expanding Idlib City Zoning Plan

16-07-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

According to Announcement No. 853 on May 9, the Ministry of Local Administration and Services of the Syrian Salvation Government has started accepting objections, comments, and suggestions on the current zoning plan of the city of Idlib, issued in 2005. This initiative is accompanied by a topographic survey of the city, which has become the SSG’s administrative centre, in order to expand its zoning plan to accommodate the urban and population growth over the past years.

The current population of Idlib City is 374,000, based on the latest statistics from the Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU) of October 2023. This figure includes both original residents and displaced people. In 2010, the city’s population was estimated at around 165,000. The significant population increase has been the primary driver for revising the city’s zoning plan to meet the vital needs of the residents.

Since November 2023, the Urban Planning Directorate in the Ministry of Local Administration has been preparing planning studies and general and detailed zoning plans for cities and urban settlements in areas under SSG control in northwestern Syria. During this period, the directorate has completed new zoning plans for several cities and towns, including Harem, Sarmada, Salqin, and Dana, and has approved them after reviewing objections. The directorate is currently receiving objections to the zoning plan of Darat Izza in western Aleppo.

Announcements about the opening for objections to the zoning plans are posted on municipal notice boards, but they are not published on the municipalities’ social media pages. To object to the plan, a formal objection application must be submitted using an approved form available at central municipalities and their reception centres. The application must be accompanied by documents related to the subject property, including a cadastral plan, a real estate record proving ownership, and a handwritten letter explaining the objection, signed by the objector or their agent. All these documents should be compiled in one file, which should also contain the personal information of the objector.

Within the file, the objector must also submit a sketch showing the current status of their property within the zoning plan and another sketch with a proposed amendment to their property’s status, a correspondent for The Syria Report explained. Both sketches must clearly include the property number and coordinates at a 1:2000 scale. A survey committee approved by the Ministry prepares these sketches, and the objector bears the cost of their preparation.

Despite the deadline for objections to Idlib City’s zoning plan having officially ended on June 9, the Directorate is still accepting objections and applications.

Meanwhile, the Ministry will propose an expansion project for Idlib City’s zoning plan once the review of the current plan’s objections is complete. Mohammad Al-Ashqar, Director of the Urban Planning Directorate, told The Syria Report that there are no specific conditions for expanding Idlib’s zoning plan. Instead, urban planning standards regarding population density, public facilities, and streets will be used. The expansion work, including the review of objections, is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

The proposed expansion will add 400 hectares to the current plan’s 800 hectares, resulting in a total urban plan area of about 1,200 hectares. Currently, there is no intention to expropriate new properties, but an expropriation plan may be considered after the expansion project is confirmed. According to Mr Al-Ashqar, the expansion of Idlib City’s plan is expected to accommodate about 150,000 people, equivalent to around 30,000 families.

Mahmoud Abadi, a structural engineering consultant, told The Syria Report that the expansion should accommodate population and urban growth for at least 40 years. Mr Abadi, a resident of Idlib, suggested that the expansion include the creation of residential suburbs on state-owned lands southwest of the town of Kafr Jales and Wadi Khaled in the city’s vicinity. He also proposed incorporating private agricultural lands bordered by the Idlib City Corniche into the residential areas within the expansion project. Alongside the expansion, building code in Idlib City should be revised to specify the allowed number of floors, lighting and ventilation conditions, structural safety, and adherence to the Syrian Arab Code for the Design and Implementation of Reinforced Concrete Structures.

The Ansari Al-Gharbi Informal Settlement in Aleppo

02-04-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

Unlike most of Aleppo’s informal settlements, which are located in the city’s eastern neighbourhoods, the Ansari Al-Gharbi slum is situated in the southwest of the city, connecting to its eastern neighbourhoods in Al-Karroum area to the south. This informal settlement also links what was formerly known as the Ansari village with the neighbourhoods of SalahEddin, Seif Al-Dawla, and Al-Zabdiyah in Aleppo.

Regime forces used Ansari Al-Gharbi as a gathering area for eastern Aleppo inhabitants before their forced displacement at the beginning of 2016. In this article, urban expert Dr Main Kafa details the history of this area and its most prominent features.

Originally, most of the informal settlement’s lands were private agricultural properties where construction was prohibited, except for two properties covering about six percent of the entire area. One property belongs to the Ministry of Awqaf (endowments) and the other to the Aleppo municipality, used as a landfill.

In the early 1970s, some construction contractors started buying land in the area and subdividing it into plots for unauthorised construction. The contractors planned and zoned the area, carving out streets 6-8 metres wide in some parts and narrower in others. By 1973, the built-up area in Ansari Al-Gharbi covered 6.7 hectares, and by 1980, it reached around 35 hectares, according to a Ph.D. thesis by Salwa Sakal from the University of Paris VII in 1984.

The contractors built multi-storey buildings, some reaching up to seven floors, each containing multiple apartments ranging from 60-150 square metres. Few buildings consisted of only one or two storeys. The neighbourhood’s inhabitants are a mix of people from different regions, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, mostly from the rural areas of Aleppo, Raqqa and Idlib.

In 2006, the Aleppo City Council tasked the Engineering Unit at the Faculty of Architecture in Aleppo University to conduct an updated study of the area to address what it described as “collective residential violations” through the implementation of the Building Violations Law No. 1 of 2003, which was in force at the time. The latest Building Violations Law No. 40 of 2012 repealed Building Violations Law No. 59 of 2008, which in turn had repealed Law No. 1 of 2003.

The study, completed in 2009, found that the area covered about 134 hectares, inhabited by approximately 54,000 people, resulting in a high population density of 403 individuals per hectare. According to the study, 10 percent of the inhabitants are renters under lease agreements, most of which are not registered with the municipality to evade taxes. Meanwhile, 90 percent of the inhabitants own their homes, the majority of which are apartments in unlicensed buildings.

Most of the ownership documents held by residents are purchase contracts, irrevocable powers of attorney, financial records, lawsuit notices, water and electricity bills, occupancy statements, or a copy of the Provisional land Register and property registration statement. The possession of official documents by some residents, such as those issued by the Provisional land Register or a property registration statement, suggests that some buildings, especially those extending from the SalahEddin neighbourhood, are licensed constructions, albeit with building violations related to the number of floors.

The study proposed widening streets to a width of 12 metres on one side, merging smaller plots, securing services, and demolishing unlicensed buildings in various locations to ensure sunlight and ventilation in the planning of residential complexes and neighbourhoods. It also suggested unifying the building code system in the area by adopting a five-floor limit for each building and demolishing additional floors, along with implementing three setbacks at a distance of six metres each, (a setback is the required separation between a lot line and a building).

The study was not ratified until 2013, due to delays in bureaucratic procedures and interventions by security agencies. Conflicts of interest among some officials, who purchased properties in the area intending to benefit from them after learning about the study’s content and proposed solutions, also contributed to the delay in ratification.

Before the ratification of the study, in 2012, Ansari Al-Gharbi fell under the control of armed opposition forces. This led the regime forces to bombard it causing widespread destruction, significant human losses, and waves of displacement. With the Russian military intervention in 2015, the area was subjected to intense aerial bombardment until 2016, culminating in a ceasefire agreement and the forced displacement of all inhabitants, including those from Ansari Al-Gharbi.

In mid-2017, the regime forces’ checkpoints surrounding the area allowed some displaced individuals to return to Ansari Al-Gharbi, while the local municipality used bulldozers to open up some streets and remove rubble. Overall, it is estimated that the war and the bulldozing operations in Ansari Al-Gharbi resulted in the destruction of about 40 percent of the total housing stock.

In 2019, the Ansari Services Directorate, affiliated with the Aleppo City Council, launched a cleaning campaign in the neighbourhood in cooperation with the Central Services Directorate and the neighbourhood’s residents’ committee. This campaign covered the main streets and their side alleys. The residents’ committee was formed in accordance with Local Administration Law No. 107 of 2011, led by the mukhtar and members selected by the Executive Office from the neighbourhood’s permanent residents.

In 2019, new unauthorised constructions appeared in the neighbourhood after government officials and officers from the security and military forces controlling the area seized homes, buildings, and lands owned by those who were forcibly displaced or had fled. These individuals, without permits, built additional floors on these seized properties, expanded constructions at the expense of neighbouring spaces, or dug and constructed underground floors. They also took over lands that had buildings demolished by the city council as being structurally unsound, where contractors then erected new unauthorised buildings.

The earthquake on February 6, 2023 resulted in the collapse of many structurally unsound and damaged buildings in the slum, due to the indirect damage from previous bombardments by regime forces and their allies. In September 2023, the Aleppo Governorate issued the third table listing the names of those affected whose residential and commercial buildings and properties were demolished due to the earthquake in the Ansari area. According to the table, the number of demolished plots in Ansari Al-Gharbi totaled 1,081. A plot refers to a piece of land on which a building consisting of one or several floors is erected. The damage to these plots was total, rendering the buildings uninhabitable.

The governorate issued these tables based on the provisions of Legislative Decree No. 3 of 2023 and its implementing instructions, which relate to granting special exemptions and a package of facilities to those affected by the earthquake. This was in accordance with the minutes of the committee formed by the decision of the Minister of Local Administration and Environment No. 554 dated March 20, 2023, chaired by the Governor of Aleppo and ratified by the Minister of Local Administration and Environment.

SSG Draws Attention with Quickly Adopted New Zoning Plans

07-02-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

Since the end of 2023, the Ministry of Local Administration and Services under the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) has been adopting new zoning plans for cities and towns within its areas of influence in northwest Syria. The ministry also sent notification memos to residents in some towns specifying the areas of their property cut by the new plans while allowing those affected to object to other plans not yet approved.

Mohammad Said Al-Ashqar, an advisor to the Minister of Local Administration, told a correspondent for The Syria Report that the final versions of the zoning plans adopted by the ministry update some old plans, some of which were issued in the 1980s. Engineering committees affiliated with the Directorate of Urban Planning in the Ministry of Local Administration and Services worked on updating those plans. The directorate, reactivated in November 2023, includes urban planning, plans and documents, and topography departments. Its tasks involve preparing planning studies, general and detailed zoning plans for cities and urban settlements, developing a land classification guide, determining expropriation areas for public benefit, and more.

There is no general plan that outlines the future vision for population centres in Idlib, as it remains unstable due to war and repeated displacement. However, the Ministry of Local Administration and Services is attempting to establish a planning program as a basis for the general and detailed zoning plans adopted by the central municipalities, according to Al-Ashqar.

The Ministry of Local Administration and Services recently formed Regional Technical Committees affiliated with the Directorate of Urban Planning. These committees are authorised to review amendments to building code regulations, consider objections to announced zoning plans, and amend or approve them. The committees are led by the Minister of Local Administration and Services and include the director of the Directorate of Urban Planning, the mayor of the concerned municipality, and three consulting architectural engineers. They may also consult experts to decide on objections to the zoning plans. These Regional Technical Committees have addressed objections previously submitted (between 2021 and 2022) to some of the announced zoning plans at that stage.

In an unexpectedly swift decision, the Ministry of Local Administration adopted the final versions of some of these zoning plans after the committees had finished considering the objections. The ministry sequentially announced through its official channels the adoption of new zoning plans for the cities of Harem and Sarmada and the towns of Kafr Takharim and Al-Hamama at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.

At the same time, the SSG Ministry of Local Administration announced through its official channels the opportunity to object to the zoning plans for the city of Salqin, the city of Dana, the towns of Maland and Janoudia, and the city of Atarib in the western part of the Aleppo governorate. Copies of the new zoning plans open for objection were displayed on the notice boards of the concerned municipalities. In all these announcements, the ministry gave those wishing to object a one-month deadline to register their objections. After the final decision on these objections, it is assumed that the plan will be referred for final approval at the ministry.

It is essential to note the similarities between Idlib’s directorates, institutions, and committees and those in regime-controlled areas. For example, the Directorate of Urban Planning in Idlib performs similar tasks to the directorates of planning and urban development of some governorate councils in regime-controlled areas. Meanwhile, the regional technical committees perform tasks similar to those of the Regional Planning Authority and the Supreme Council for Regional Planning in regime-controlled areas. Moreover, the SSG’s procedures for approving zoning plans do not differ from those stipulated in the Urban Planning Law No. 5 of 1982, which is still followed in regime-controlled areas regarding methods for developing general and detailed zoning plans, deadlines for objections, and their approval.

Mr Al-Ashqar clarified that the newly announced zoning plans did not include new expropriations. Instead, they aimed to establish urban foundations to determine the locations of central streets and their expansions, parks, and service and administrative centres that serve the population clusters. However, The Syria Report’s correspondent pointed out some confusion and chaos in implementing the new zoning plans in Idlib. For example, the new zoning plan for the town of Kafr Takharim, part of the Sarmada municipality, was issued on December 30, 2023. At the beginning of 2024, the municipality warned owners of commercial shops and homes on Bazaar Street and the second-hand market to evacuate because their properties were included in the public road expansion under the new zoning plan.

The notification method was relatively unusual, as phrases like “Demolish distance of X metres in length” were written on the walls of these properties. The affected parties consulted the Sarmada municipality, which sent a new technical committee that issued written warnings to the property owners, requiring them to evacuate. On January 10, the municipality sent a new committee that informed some of the affected individuals about the reduction in the demolition area of their properties to minimise damages. This committee also confirmed the demolition area for the rest of the properties and cancelled the demolition for some others.

Council of Ministers Bans Amendments to Zoning Plans

25-07-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

On July 17, 2023, Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous issued Circular No. 15/17-B, which prohibits modifications to general and detailed zoning plans to protect these plans and preserve urban cohesiveness. However, preventing these modifications means halting the routine process of amending zoning plans and building codes to adjust to ongoing urban changes. This new circular could also expand the scope of what administrative units consider to violate their zoning plans and building codes.

The circular included multiple instructions regarding zoning plans, most notably prohibiting changes to the building codes, especially in terms of increasing the number of storeys in a building. Each administration unit in Syria has a building code that outlines the conditions and specifications for construction in various urban areas. The July circular prohibits any changes in setbacks, which are requirements imposed by the building codes on the proposed construction plot, in terms of size, dimensions, allocations, height, and more.

The purpose of preventing modifications to building codes and setbacks in a given area is to maintain that area’s general zoning plan, which provides a vision for future residential neighbourhoods and their expansion. A general zoning plan sets the urban boundaries, the road network, and land uses for the administrative unit in a given area, distinguishing between private and public property. The July 17 circular prohibits any changes to the zoning categories of properties in a zoning plan’s area, especially public buildings and parks, to prevent affecting the plans and the future vision for the site and to maintain urban planning principles. Such plans are the foundation upon which the process of zoning plans, detailed and otherwise, and building codes for each administrative entity are based. They identify the current and future needs of the population within the administrative unit in line with current conditions, population density, and public services and facilities.

The circular also specifies procedures for adopting vital public benefit projects, such as hospitals, schools, and tourism projects. The process for such projects begins with a proposal from the local administrative unit, then the governor’s approval, followed by permission from the minister concerned with the project, and final approval of a special committee known as the Services and Infrastructure Committee.

The Services and Infrastructure Committee was created by Prime Ministerial Decree No. 38 in July 2016, aiming to study and audit legislative projects referred to in its field of competence. The body also prepares studies, discusses emerging issues in its field, offers proposals and solutions, and studies all other matters referred to by the Council of Ministers. The committee comprises 11 members, chaired by the Minister of Local Administration. It includes the ministers of Public Works and Housing, Tourism, Administrative Development, Health, Communications and Technology, Transportation, and Water Resources; the Minister of State for Affairs on Following up on Southern Region Projects; the Head of the Planning and International Cooperation Commission, and a representative from the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

Notably, the July circular contradicts Urban Planning Law No. 5 of 1982, which regulates the mechanisms for issuing zoning plans. Law No. 5 allowed the Ministry of Public Works and Housing to modify the zoning programmes for populated areas. The 1982 law also allowed local administrative units to introduce modifications required by public interest into such plans or building codes, provided they are consistent with local urban planning and zoning programmes. Law No. 5 did not prohibit the modification of regulatory categories that lead to the development of plans, such as the construction of buildings, facilities and other installations that meet the needs of residents after studying those needs and objectives.

In contrast, the most recent circular did not specify the methods to modify such plans. According to Law No. 5, amending a given area’s general and detailed zoning plan, and the building code, is a routine procedure that follows the following steps: The administrative unit declares the proposed modification by decree of the Minister of Housing after one year has passed since the first issuance of the zoning plan or building code in question. Afterwards, objections to the modification are received within a specified deadline. Then, the modified plan or code must be re-announced every three years.

Explained: Expropriation for Unifying Real Estate Properties

02-05-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

On March 26, 2023, the Council of Ministers issued a decision to expropriate a property in Aleppo, considering it to be public property, and merged it with an adjacent one.

Decision No. 517 expropriated Section B of Real Estate 13480 from Aleppo’s Real Estate Zone No. 4. The property was merged with Real Estate 9637 after its owners failed to agree to implement approved zoning measures for the city of Aleppo.

The Council of Ministers issued a similar decree, No. 1972, on November 3, 2022, which expropriated Property 1858 and part of Property 1074 from the Northern Qatana Real Estate Zone No. 65 in the Rural Damascus governorate. The purpose of this decree was to merge those two properties with Property 1072 and expropriate part of Property 1854 and merge it with Property 1071. These measures would help implement the approved zoning plan for the Qatana area after the owners of those properties failed to reach an agreement to do so.

Syria’s Council of Ministers may issue expropriation decrees like the ones above to implement projects that are considered to have a public benefit, according to the expropriation law included in Legislative Decree No. 20 of 1983. There is a wide range of projects that fit this category, including paving new roads or expanding existing roads and constructing squares, souks, houses of worship, military barracks, airports, hospitals, medical centres, agricultural facilities, oil projects, and buildings for the Baath Party or other various organisations, as well as implementing zoning plans, tourism projects, and industrial zones. In addition, expropriation can also extend to real estate or parts of real estate that are unsuitable for construction so that they can be merged and made suitable for construction.

According to Decree No. 20, during the implementation of an approved zoning plan, if there are any adjacent properties (or parts of properties) that are unsuited for construction (due to small surface area or odd geometric shape), the owners of these properties must agree to merge them so that they can become suitable for construction according to their governorate’s building codes.

But if these owners fail to reach an agreement, then the local administrative unit may merge the properties and expropriate them in exchange for an expropriation compensation. Administrative authorities must document the process of combining these confiscated properties in the presence of the rights holders. This documentation can serve as evidence of the expropriation.

These properties must meet certain conditions to be merged. For example, they must be adjacent, be in the same real estate zone, and have the same legal classification. This merging process is a technical transaction similar to the real estate subdivision. First, a sworn engineer inspects the properties on the ground to ascertain their combined shape, draws technical plans, and organises surface area and boundaries records. They then transfer these records to the Land Registry department and later to the relevant administrative authority to approve the technical plans.

The administrative authority must then sell the newly merged real estate via exclusive auction to the owners of the combined properties. If there is a successful sale through this method, the buyer must pay the relevant administrative unit 15 percent of the sales value to cover administrative expenses. But if this exclusive auction does not reach the expropriation compensation value, the property goes up for public auction under Decree No. 28 of 1969, which regulates contracts made by public authorities. This auction is public and open to anyone, not just the owners of the merged properties. Once a sale is complete, the administrative unit uses the proceeds from the auction to pay the expropriation compensation to the owners of those expropriated properties.

The Expropriation Law allows administrative units to take one-quarter of the confiscated property free of charge in cases of partial expropriation so long as the remaining three-quarters of the property is suitable for use. In such cases, the administrative unit does not pay expropriation compensation for that deducted one-quarter of the property. However, if those remaining three-quarters are unsuitable for use, the entire property is expropriated.

Explained: The Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation in Damascus Governorate

28-03-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

The Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation is part of the municipal services at the Damasus governorate. It is tasked mainly with preparing and following up on the city’s general zoning draft plan. The directorate also puts in place the city’s planning and expropriation draft plans and follows up on procedures for approval.

The directorate is in charge of planning, implementation and supervision, tasks that give it wide-reaching powers that often affect housing, land and property rights. For example, 40 years ago the directorate made an expropriation plan for properties in the RuknEddin informal settlement, located at the foot of Mount Qasioun, in order to widen certain streets and build a school. Though the area underwent expropriation, this project has not yet been implemented. Instead, these properties have fallen into disrepair and heirs have been barred from restoring them. A similar problem happened in the Midan neighbourhood of Damascus, when some properties were expropriated in order to widen local streets.

The directorate is also responsible for classifying districts within the capital as residential, commercial or agricultural. This task includes keeping some areas, such as Basateen Al-Razi and Basateen Kiwan in the Mazzeh area classified as agricultural land despite being located in the heart of Damascus, under the pretext of maintaining green spaces in the capital. Property owners in these areas have therefore been unable to obtain construction permits. As a result, informal settlements were established in these formerly green areas that grew without regulation. In the early 2000s, however, the directorate reneged and decided to change the classification of Basateen Kiwan from an agricultural area into a real estate investment area, and offered real estate there for investment without any justification. Later, Legislative Decree No. 66 of 2012, which created two zoned real estate areas within the general zoning plan for Damascus, allowed for the governorate to transform Basateen Al-Razi and its surroundings into Marota City.

In addition, the directorate is responsible for securing alternative housing (which is not provided for free) to eligible residents, as well as following up on the procedures for distributing the homes. That said, the handover of alternative housing units usually faces years-long delays and in many cases the homes are located outside the administrative boundaries of Damascus. The 1990s saw the Four Seasons Hotel built on land expropriated by the Damascus governorate in the downtown Zuqaq Al-Sakhr neighbourhood — but owners of those expropriated properties were given alternative housing in the Qudsaya suburb. And residents entitled to alternative housing in the Marota and Basilia City projects are still waiting, seven years after eviction, for homes that will be constructed at their own expense.

The Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation also prepares and follows up on studies related to health and the environment, though it does not appear to be fulfilling this duty to the greatest extent possible. For example, construction on the Yazid River water treatment plant in Damascus’ RuknEddin neighbourhood, as well as the sewage treatment plant in Dummar, located west of Damascus, was completed in the early 2000s. However, they remain out of service to this day, allowing untreated sewage water to be pumped directly into the Barada River.

The Licensing and Construction Department affiliated with the Directorate of Planning and Urbanisation, is in charge of issuing permits for a multitude of construction and demolition projects. This department receives and records applications for construction permits and follows up on issuing them. It also issues orders to start construction. As well as permits for demolition, constructing fortifications (such as walls around or above a building), modifying stairwells, constructing sheds on existing buildings and installing fuel tanks.

The directorate also works to set construction permit fees and improvement fees, and has the authority to halt construction projects due to failure to complete the permit process or pay the necessary fees.

Finally, the directorate is responsible for setting and implementing the system of building codes for Damascus city, which was issued in 1997. This system is a set of administrative decisions issued by local administrative units and approved by the governorates and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. It determines the conditions that must be met for construction, repair and demolition of buildings and other facilities within those administrative units.