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Government Arrests Officials from Qatana City Council over Unlicensed Construction

18-06-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

The Deputy Governor of Rural Damascus announced in February the arrest of the president of the city council and head of the technical office in Qatana, a suburb of Damascus located west of the Syrian capital, according to an article published by the semi-official newspaper Al-Watan on February 25. The officials are reportedly under investigation due to their involvement in concealing unlicensed construction.

Qatana is a city and district centre administratively belonging to the governorate of Rural Damascus. The city witnessed significant expropriations of local properties in the 1970s for the benefit of the Ministry of Defence, which established multiple military sites for the 10th Division and the Republican Guard, as well as housing for officers. There are five compounds in Qatana comprising hundreds of residences for officers, some of which were constructed by the Military Construction Establishment of the Ministry of Defence, including the residences of the 10th Division officers, Ras Al-Maara residences, and Tawaafiq residences. An active officer in the regime’s forces in Damascus and its countryside can rent a house in these compounds for a nominal fee during their service period until the end of their military service.

Some of these compounds have witnessed numerous cases of unlicensed construction by resident officers, such as expansions and the construction of annexes.

Over time, Qatana has become one of the largest residential areas for military and security officials in Rural Damascus, with a significant proportion of them hailing from the Syrian coast. Besides the housing allocated to them, some of these officers bought properties and land in Qatana and built homes where they lived after retirement, forming their own communities and neighbourhoods in the city.

The original residents of Qatana, who are Sunni Muslims, felt marginalised in their own city due to the extensive expropriations. This sentiment contributed to their participation in demonstrations against the regime at the onset of the 2011 uprising. With the emergence of armed opposition factions, several battles took place in Qatana before regime forces fully regained control by the end of 2012, expelling the opposition to the nearby Khan Al-Shih Palestinian refugee camp. The armed factions from Qatana formed a group named “Khan Al-Shih Gathering,” which fought against regime forces in western Rural Damascus. In 2016, regime forces, supported by Russian airpower, launched a large military campaign in the area, resulting in the forced displacement of opposition factions to northern Syria.

While most neighbouring cities, such as Zakia, Khan Al-Shih, and Kanaker, were under siege, Qatana became a market for building materials in the region. Since 2015, Qatana has witnessed large-scale unlicensed construction overlooked by municipal authorities, largely because those committing them were affiliated with regime forces.

According to a correspondent for The Syria Report, the president of the Qatana city council, Nourhan Imran, and the head of the technical office were detained by the Political Security Branch in Damascus on behalf of the Central Authority for Supervision and Inspection (CASI) on February 23. The correspondent noted that Ms Imran and the head of the technical office were released 24 hours after their detention and have since resumed their duties normally.

Sources within Qatana municipality reported that after her release, Ms Imran accused certain city council members of being responsible for her detention by filing what she described as “hundreds of malicious reports” against her. Ms Imran stated that her release came after she was “cleared” of the charges. However, these sources indicated that her release resulted from intervention by a security agency on her behalf, denying the claim of her exoneration. According to the sources, Ms Imran was involved in covering up multiple cases of unlicensed construction, which she ignored due to nepotism, personal relationships, or accepting bribes.

According to those sources, Ms Imran and the head of the technical office had taken preemptive steps to protect themselves. They wrote official reports on the unlicensed construction, demanding their removal by applying Building Violations Law No. 40 of 2012. It is common practice among Syrian officials involved in corruption to file reports on matters they wish to cover up, but then hinder the follow-up actions. It remains unclear how these reports are archived and not executed.

In any case, sources indicate that the reports submitted against Ms Imran to the CASI were not limited to concealing unlicensed constructions. They also highlighted her responsibility for corruption in the compulsory readjustment of land to property owners in Qatana.

Compulsory land readjustment occurs during the zoning of an area by reallocating land to rightful owners, often in different locations and after deducting a portion without compensation. According to Planning and Urban Development Law No. 23 of 2015, a zoned real estate area becomes a legal entity replacing all landowners and rights holders. The zoning work concludes by redistributing properties to rights holders according to their shares, and this redistribution must be exclusively within the zoning area.

In July 2023, journalist Reem Al-Saleh, who works for the official Al-Thawra newspaper, mentioned in a radio interview with Sham FM that her father owned six dunums within the zoning area of the city. The compulsory readjustment committee compensated him with two plots outside the zoning area. Ms Al-Saleh confirmed that the Rural Damascus Governorate Council was unaware of the issue, noting that the problem affected dozens of rights holders in Qatana who were compensated with plots outside the zoning area. Ms Al-Saleh accused the Qatana City Council, without naming Ms Imran.

In August 2023, Ms Imran told Al-Watan newspaper that the zoning decree No. 8 of 2015 in Qatana was issued according to the provisions of the old law No. 9 of 1974, which pertains to the division, zoning, and urbanisation of cities. This law allows for the free deduction of up to 45 percent of the area of properties within the zoned real estate area. She added that the entity responsible for responding to complaints is the compulsory readjustment committee, headed by a real estate judge. Ms Imran emphasised that as the head of the municipality, her role was solely to announce the issuance of the distribution tables and that the objection period for these tables ended on August 8, 2023.

She also explained that the zoning area included entire properties as well as parts of other properties. Therefore, owners of entire properties received their zoning plots within the area, while owners of partially zoned properties had parts of their land included in the area and parts remaining outside.

However, complaints indicated that owners of agricultural land within the zoning area were compensated with plots outside the area. Additionally, some rights holders were given plots in areas with existing occupations and residences. The Syria Report’s correspondent could not confirm the involvement of mayor Imran in the compulsory readjustment issue.

Tartous Informal Settlements to be Zoned Under Urban Planning Law

14-05-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

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.

Daraa’s Al-Maftara Neighbourhood Undergoes Zoning

11-07-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

On June 4, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued Legislative Decree No. 140 of 2023, permitting the Daraa City Council to implement Chapter Two of the Urban Planning and Urbanisation Law No. 23 of 2015 for properties in the Daraa real estate zone No. 1. The decree enables the implementation of the zoning area in the city’s Al-Maftara neighbourhood.

The decree stated that the zoning plan for the city of Daraa and the detailed subdivision plan indicate the boundaries of the zoning area. The prime minister’s office, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, and the Daraa City Council hold copies of these plans.

Chapter One of Law No. 23 gives local administrative units multiple options for zoning an area. Meanwhile, Chapter Two includes the main provisions of Law No. 23 and addresses zoning, which can be applied to any one of the following cases: areas affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods or damaged by wars and fires; urban expansion areas to the general zoning plans for city centres after the year 2000; areas that appended to the general zoning plans for cities and towns; or areas where the administrative unit wants to implement the general and detailed zoning plan related to it. Zoning involves partitioning the land into zoning divisions by the administrative entity.

Al-Maftara neighbourhood, located in the western part of Daraa city, is the last urban area separating the city from its countryside. It is at most three kilometres away from the town of Yadouda. After 2013, the regime forces withdrew from the towns of Yadouda and Muzayrib. They assembled in Al-Maftara, turning the neighbourhood into a frontline with opposition forces. In 2015, opposition forces took control of the Al-Maftara neighbourhood for several days during the “Storm of the South” battle before withdrawing under pressure from regime forces. The regime maintained control until it reached an agreement with opposition forces in Daraa in mid-2018.

After the agreement, some residents returned to Al-Maftara neighbourhood. Regime forces remained stationed at several nearby military sites, most notably Air Defence Battalion 285, the Panorama, and the Daraa suburb. They even used civilian locations in Al-Maftara, such as the Abu Naeem olive press, for gathering and mobilising before executing their military campaigns in 2021 and 2022 towards the towns of Tafas and Yadouda in western rural Daraa. The same has occurred since the beginning of this July, with regime forces aiming to launch a military operation on the farms near the town of Yadouda.

Part of the Al-Maftara neighbourhood, specifically the section north of the Corniche road, was previously zoned and added to the zoning plan for the city of Daraa. However, the new area declared under Decree No. 140 for zoning is south of the Corniche. It includes more than 100 properties and parts of more than 50 properties. This area witnessed the arrival of mass displacement from the city of Daraa in mid-2011. Some people who arrived in the area built homes on land they owned. According to The Syria Report’s sources, about 1,500 people occupied more than 100 buildings south of the Corniche during periods of military calm.

The area south of the Corniche was considered a buffer zone for the city zoning plan, which separated the area between the zoned and unzoned areas. Parts of a buffer are routinely zoned during the expansion of a zoning plan. Municipalities and the executive office in the governorate prohibit the construction of residential or commercial buildings in the buffer zone.

On July 4, state-run newspaper Tishreen published an article justifying the zoning process with the fact that the urbanisation rate, according to Daraa’s zoning plan, had reached 90 percent, resulting in a shortage of remaining housing and an increase in prices. According to the newspaper, the shortage required that the city add more zoning divisions for construction.

The president of Daraa’s city council told Tishreen on January 23 that Al-Maftara neighbourhood’s expansion area was 158 hectares and that the topographical survey was complete. He added that the area was divided into various residential subdivisions, schools, parks, service facilities, and roads, among other things. He said that zoning the area will provide around 1,200 residential subdivisions to the Daraa city zoning plan, five percent of which will be for youth housing.

The city council president also said there was a second, 180-hectare urban expansion zone called Al-Kashef Al-Shamali and a third, 142-hectare zone in Tal Al-Sultan and Al-Bahhar on the outskirts of Daraa.

Like most laws addressing urban expansion and planning, properties inside the newly formed zoning area established under Law No. 23 constitute commonly owned property among all the rights holders in that zone. Each of those rights holders is granted equal shares to the estimated value of their property or in-kind properties. The local administrative unit deducts up to half of the surface area of each property in the zoned area in cities that are governorate centres without paying the property owners for this deduction. Instead, this deduction occurs in return for what Law No. 23 describes as the material and moral benefit that the property owner will receive as a result of their property entering the new zoning area, as well as the assets that will be allocated towards securing basic services. These include roads, public squares, parks, parking lots, public facilities, popular housing subdivisions and special service subdivisions, in addition to any increase in the purchase value of the properties.

Sources told The Syria Report that an initial appraisal committee was formed under Law No. 23. The committee comprised a real estate judge, two real estate experts, and two local resident representatives. The committee began its work in late June. The job of this committee is to give initial appraisals of the property values in the zoning area before it is zoned. Afterwards, a dispute resolution committee will be formed to consider any property ownership claims or disputes between property owners. That will be followed by a compulsory land readjustment committee to distribute the subdivisions in the zoning area to the rights holders. Compulsory land readjustment occurs during the zoning of an area, by distributing shares to rights holders in locations that are typically not the sites of their original properties.

On July 4, the head of the technical department at the Daraa city council told Tishreen that once the compulsory land readjustment decision is issued, the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs will be contacted to issue new property documents for the resulting properties and deliver them to their owners, so they can dispose of them, whether for licensing and construction or for selling them.

Yabroud to Build New Industrial Zone under Planning and Urban Development Law

31-01-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

On November 27, 2022, the Syrian President issued Decree No. 308, which permits the Yabroud City Council in Rural Damascus governorate to establish a new industrial zone under the Planning and Urban Development Law No. 23 of 2015.

Published in the Official Gazette, the decree lists the real estate properties to be included as part of the Yabroud No. 11/26 real estate zone. The decree also gives the city council the powers to implement chapter two of Law No. 23/2015 on zoning, which enables local authorities to partition the land into zoned plots. These plots are pieces of land resulting from the partitioning or zoning of a larger property.

The zoning process can apply to areas that fall within any of the following scenarios:

Areas impacted by natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods;
Areas damaged by war or fires;
Areas that are impacted by zoning plans undergoing urban expansion;
Areas in which local authorities want to implement general and detailed zoning plans.

This last scenario is currently underway in Yabroud’s planned new industrial zone.

As for the size of the industrial zone, official statements have contradicted one another. A board member of the Damascus and Rural Damascus Chamber of Industry told the state-owned Al-Thawra Newspaper in 2019 that the industrial zone would span 77 hectares, while the head of the Department of Industry at the Rural Damascus governorate told that same newspaper in 2020 that it would be only 18 hectares. In yet another statement, the director of the Chamber of Industry’s Qalamoun office told the state-run SANA news agency in August 2022 that the industrial zone would be around 150 hectares.

A source from Yabroud’s city council told The Syria Report’s local correspondent that around 150 hectares of real estate had been allocated for implementing the industrial zone under Decree No. 308. The source added that the new zone would be located just east of the old one, closer to the Damascus-Homs international highway.

According to an industrialist from Yabroud, the industrial zone project dates back to 2001. The new zone will aim at hosting bigger factories.

Law No. 23 grants local administrative units the power to deduct, without compensation, part of the real estate areas included within the zoning plan, provided these areas are used for public benefit. In rural areas, up to 40 percent of the site can be deducted, a process expected to happen in the case of the Yabroud industrial zone.

In addition, Law No. 23 establishes three successive committees: one for initial appraisal, another for dispute resolution and a third for compulsory land readjustment. The initial appraisal committee estimates the value of the real estate in the area before zoning begins. The dispute resolution committee’s job is to examine claims of ownership over those real estate properties and any disputes between owners. Finally, the compulsory land readjustment committee distributes the land plots to rights holders after zoning.

Compulsory land readjustment occurs when a plot of land is prepared for construction per the zoning plans. During this process, rights holders are not entitled to choose the location of their plots. Under Law No. 23, a zoned real estate area is a legal entity that takes the place of all former property owners and rights holders in that area; zoning work concludes with the distribution of the newly zoned properties to rights holders according to their shares.

Explained: Zoning Plan in Douma

22-11-2022/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

Douma is a city in East Ghouta and serves as the administrative centre of the Rural Damascus governorate and the Douma district, which contains seven districts. The 2010 census estimated that 300,000 people live in the 3,000-hectare city.

The Douma Department of Real Estate has 68 real estate zones covering the entire Douma district. The city is composed of nine real estate zones: Sahat wa Arab, Annatar, Qasareen Shams, Al-Dweir, Al-Rumman, Al-Qusayr, Al-Mazraaeh, Betwaneh, and Al-Ab. Sahat wa Arab and Qasareen Shams form the main historic centre of Douma, which hosts the Great Mosque, Al-Ghanem Square, Al-Hal Souk, and Khorshid Street.

Informal housing

The importance of Douma increased in the 1980s, making the city a popular destination for newcomers from other parts of the country. The new arrivals increased the demand for housing in the area. Thus, the city began to expand informally at the expense of local farmland, especially in the north and south. By 2010, these informally built areas comprised 70 percent of the total area of Douma.

One group of informal housing projects, dubbed Al-Hajjarieh, sprouted at the city’s northern end, extending over the Antar, Al-Rumman, and Qasareen Shams real estate zones. Another one, Haret Al-Deirieh, was also established in the Betwaneh real estate zone. A third informal housing project took shape on an area legally classified as agricultural land in the Annatar and Al-Rumman, extending to the Damascus-Homs highway. Some informal housing projects were also constructed in Al-Qusayr real estate zone, eventually reaching the Al-Hajjarieh informal housing project from the west.

On top of that, Al-Mazraaeh and Al-Ab zones south of Douma, which were previously classified as agricultural land, became informal housing areas. The informal housing project in Al-Mazraaeh expanded until it reached the nearby town of Al-Shayfounieh, while the informal housing in Al-Ab reached the city of Misraba.

Similar housing projects made their way to the Al-Dweir real estate zone, which contains the Adra Prison and the Ibn Sinna Hospital for Psychiatric Illnesses.

It is worth noting that Douma’s informal housing projects sprouted, for the most part, on private agricultural lands that were not previously zoned rather than on public property. The owners of these unlicensed homes also pay a roof tax to the Rural Damascus governorate’s Department of Finance. In other words, these properties are noted in the governorate’s financial records as houses although they are unlicensed. That said, these homes are not listed in the Land Registry and are still considered legally considered to be commonly owned shares of properties.

Zoning

Douma has an old zoning plan issued in 1966. In 2003, however, the municipality expanded its zoning plan to include new areas such as the Haret Al-Joureh neighbourhood and new housing cooperative homes in the Annatar real estate zone. This expansion also included previously unzoned areas of Annatar, Al-Ab, and Al-Mazraaeh. The zoning plan’s total surface area after the 2003 expansion reached 560 hectares and was approved in 2005.

Compulsory land readjustment

The 2003 expansion also zoned a 250-hectare area of Douma according to the principle of compulsory land readjustment. The readjustment occurs when a site is being zoned by distributing property shares to rights holders, often not in the original locations of those properties, and after deducting a certain percentage of those properties without compensation. The decision to undertake this zoning process was made per Law No. 9 of 1974, which concerns the division, zoning, and construction of cities. The law prohibits transactions that subdivide or consolidate real estate and grant construction permits before completing the compulsory land readjustment process.

In Douma’s case, the compulsory land readjustment included parts of the Annatar, Al-Rumman, Betwaneh, Al-Mazraaeh, and Al-Ab real estate zones. For example, the newly zoned portion of Betwaneh, which was previously classified as agricultural land, was renamed the “Tantheem Khalaf Al-Baladieh” and has become known as among the nicest and most expensive parts of Douma due to its modern urban planning and green spaces.

On the other hand, compulsory land readjustment was not implemented in other parts of Douma, where dense informal housing remain in place. In 2005, Douma’s city council decided to make the compulsory land readjustment areas subject to rezoning under Law No. 46 of 2004, an amendment of Law No. 9 of 1974. This amendment allowed compulsory land readjustment areas to be considered areas of collective unlicensed construction. The measure made it easier to grant construction permits, carry out real estate subdivisions, and consolidate transactions under certain conditions within such areas. The Rural Damascus governorate approved the city council’s decision in 2010, but it has yet to be implemented.

Post-2011

During the 2011 uprising, protests reached Douma, and the government tried to control the situation by requesting that a committee of residents be formed so that they could communicate their demands. This committee then submitted its demands, which, most notably, included expanding Douma’s zoning plan.

In June 2011, the Rural Damascus governor said that the residents’ demands were being implemented and affirmed the need to enact the new zoning plan as quickly as possible. He gave Douma’s Directorate of Cadastral Affairs a one-month deadline to complete lists of common property owners and form a committee to follow up on implementation and overcome any roadblocks.

Then, in June 2011, the government issued five decrees for the Douma district, Decrees No. 195-199, which allowed the city council to implement compulsory land redistribution under Law No. 9 of 1974 for the following real estate zones: Al-Ab, Annatar, Al-Sindyaneh, Betwaneh, Al-Gharbieh, and Al-Rumman. The five decrees deemed the implementation of such work in these areas to be in the public interest.

Furthermore, implementing the decrees was supposed to speed up the compulsory land redistribution process and solve the problem of informal housing and common ownership. However, deteriorating security and political conditions prevented the decrees from being carried out. Meanwhile, during the regime’s siege of East Ghouta between 2013 and 2018, regime forces bombed Douma heavily with artillery fire and rockets, leading to widespread damage in residential neighbourhoods, whether zoned or informal.

The information in this article draws on a wide-ranging interview The Syria Report conducted with Adnan Taha, a former official at the Office of Documentation in Douma.

New Zoning Plan for Jobar Erases Al-Mualameen Tower

27-09-2022/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

Issued last June, Zoning Plan No. 106 for the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus does not allocate any plot to rebuild the Al-Mualameen Tower, which regime forces destroyed in 2015. Record No. 53 in the Land Registry, on which the tower is listed, does not receive any mention in Zoning Plan No. 106.

The 12-storey Al-Mualameen Tower was located on the outskirts of Jobar and overlooked the nearby Al-Abasiyeen Garages, the commercial district, and Al-Abasiyeen Square. The Housing Cooperative Society owns the tower for Teachers and Educators in Damascus, hence the building’s name (“mualameen” means “teachers” in Arabic). The government granted the cooperative a permit on June 17, 1974, and it began constructing the tower in the 1980s, on a plot of land corresponding to the real estate record No. 53. In 2004, the cooperative finally handed the apartments over to applicants per the housing cooperative system. The tower was located in a zoned real estate area and was divided into individual apartments listed within the Land Registry under the names of the apartment owners.

Cooperative housing is linked to social housing programs implemented by Syria’s public authorities. Housing cooperative societies were all previously affiliated with the General Union of Cooperative Housing, which dissolved under Decree No. 37 of 2019, 58 years after it was established. The Ministry of Public Works and Housing took on the union’s roles.

The apartment owners in Al-Mualameen Tower are state employees working in education. For them, subscribing to apartments in the building was the most significant investment in their professional lives, serving as a reward for the end of their service and an asset to pass down to their children, one owner told The Syria Report.

The biggest problem with Al-Mualameen Tower and other housing cooperative projects in general was the more than two-decade delay in receiving the apartments. Applicants for Al-Mualameen didn’t receive their apartments until 2004 after most had already retired and finished paying off their payments for the housing. Worse, the newfound apartment owners immediately had to repair and restore the homes due to poor construction.

The tower’s height and location made it a strategic military point, contested between regime and opposition forces. Rebels seized the building and occupied it between 2013 and 2015. During this time, the regime tried and failed to recapture it despite bombing the tower with airstrikes, artillery shells and rockets. Then, in February 2015, regime forces dug a tunnel under the tower at 16 metres deep and 250 metres long, set up explosives inside, then detonated them, turning the building into a pile of rubble.

In late June 2022, the Damascus governorate issued Detailed Zoning Plan No. 106 for Jobar and fielded objections from relevant rightsholders. The detailed zoning plan did not observe any new plot of land for rights holders in the teachers’ cooperative, which implies classifying the destroyed tower as an unlicensed building within an informal settlement. The Syria Report could not confirm whether any of the rights holders in Al-Mualameen Tower filed any objections to Detailed Zoning Plan No. 106 within the one-month deadline to do so.

The zoning area in Jobar is subject to Planning and Urban Development Law No. 23 of 2015, which gave administrative authorities the choice to employ Law No. 23, the Expropriation Law, or the Real Estate Development and Investment Law when re-zoning areas containing informal housing or rehabilitating areas damaged by natural catastrophes and war.

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 zoning receive plots of land designated for construction within that same area as compensation for losing their original properties. However, the land distributed to the rights holders is often not in the original locations of their properties. Furthermore, up to 40 percent of the surface area of their original properties may be deducted, without compensation, when handing over the new lands.

If rights holders file objections, prove their ownership and obtain new land through compulsory land readjustment, they must then assemble themselves and their allocated plots of land. Rights holders must then build on these properties at their own expense. If a rights holder dies, the inheritance process is carried out in the presence of all their heirs, or at least their legal representatives. Both cases require prior security approval, adding potential complications to proving the existing rights of former Al-Mualameen Tower residents.