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Damascus City Conceals Identity of Company Commissioned to Design its Master Plan

05-12-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

The Director of Zoning and Urban Planning in Damascus governorate, Hassan Tarablusi, stated during a council meeting on November 7 that the governorate signed a contract with a company to study the master plan, also called the general zoning plan, for Damascus and its surroundings, covering an area of 59,000 hectares. Of this area, 11,000 hectares are within the city limits, and the rest are within the borders of the Rural Damascus Governorate. Mr Tarablusi mentioned that the Damascus and Rural Damascus governorates are working in coordination with each other to complete the plan.

Three zoning plans have been issued for Damascus: the first in 1937, the second in 1968, and the last in 2001. Since 2015, there has been talk of a new zoning plan for the city that considers various urban changes. The 2001 plan, prepared by the General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES) under the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, covers an area of 30,000 hectares, including parts of nearby Rural Damascus.

The zoning plan is a mechanism for implementing laws of zoning and real estate development and for removing informal settlements. Urban Planning Law No. 5 of 1982 outlines the process for issuing zoning plans; first, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing establishes the urban planning foundations for the area to meet the population needs within the broader scope of regional planning. Subsequently, the concerned administrative unit creates a planning program and initial concepts for the general zoning plan. If the Ministry approves the initial concept of the general plan, the administrative unit, in cooperation with the GCES, prepares the general and detailed zoning plan according to Law No. 5.

The GCES, established in 1980, was merged with the General Company for Water Studies under Law No. 12 of 2019, which indicates the company’s primary role in zoning and planning studies and in verifying these studies. The company has 11 engineering directorates covering most engineering specialisations, with more than 2,200 employees, including about 800 engineers. It has executed dozens of projects and issued zoning plans for governorates, including Damascus. The company actively works in urban planning and issuing zoning plans, often in collaboration with Damascus University, the Syndicate of Engineers, the Institute of Regional Planning affiliated with Damascus University, and the Higher Regional Planning Council (HRPC).

However, due to operational difficulties and to overcome bureaucracy and delays in the issuance of plans, it has become customary for administrative units to delegate the task of preparing general and detailed zoning plans to licensed private engineering companies. This process is carried out according to rules and procedures stipulated by the Public contract regulations issued by Law No. 51 of 2004.

Therefore, it is surprising that the Damascus governorate or its officials have made no statement regarding the company’s identity conducting the current study or how the contract was signed without announcing a tender or soliciting bids. There is a rumour in the Damascus governorate that the private company involved belongs to a businessman allied with the regime.

The Prime Minister has the right to compel the Damascus Governorate to work with the GCES, according to Article 7 of Law No. 12 of 2019. But it is unclear why he did not do that, especially when the Syrian government is trying to reduce its investment expenditures and costs to face the country’s economic crisis. Instead of contracting with public entities, the Damascus governorate has resorted to contracting with a private company without disclosing its identity and apparently without going through a tendering process. This is at a time when the Damascus governorate is neglecting some of its service plans under the pretext of a lack of resources.

This is not the governorate’s first attempt to pass along such contracts. Three years ago, it proposed transforming Damascus into a “Smart City” that optimally uses resources and electronically controls various public services. At the time, the governorate tried to quietly approve a contract with an unidentified company to carry out the project. The governorate officials then justified resorting to a private company to circumvent international sanctions and attract investors capable of bringing in modern technology without exposing them to sanctions.

Although the “Smart City” project was not completed, governorate officials said that the first step towards a smart city would begin with relieving the city of traffic congestion. At that time, the Masaffat Company won a contract for paid car parking services on the streets of Damascus. The company is owned by Syrian businessman Khodr Ali Taher, known as Abu Ali Khodr, who is considered close to the Syrian regime and has been on the US sanctions list since 2020.

Former Governor Arrested for Unlicensed Construction in Lattakia

22-11-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

Former Lattakia Governor Major General Ibrahim Khader Al-Salem was arrested under a warrant issued on October 18, by the Ministry of Justice’s Lattakia Court and placed in the governorate’s Al-Basseh prison. Out of 14 officials wanted for investigation in the same cases, 10 were arrested and four went into hiding.

Among the charges directed against the former governor, according to the arrest and summons warrant, are crimes of bribery, forgery of official documents, the misuse of public funds, embezzlement, and seizing state properties. A video clip circulated on social media showing Mr Salem surrounded by police officers, apparently at the moment of his arrest and being led out of his house. However, it appears that his arrest preceded the warrant by more than 45 days, according to local media.

On October 3, the semi-official Al-Watan newspaper reported the arrest of current and former officials, neighbourhood mukhtars, building contractors, and influential people, describing them as part of an organised corruption network involved in serious unlicensed construction, public funds embezzlement, changing the zoning status of real estate areas, extorting public properties, and money laundering. The newspaper stated that a precautionary seizure was placed on the properties of these accused individuals, including their spouses and children. Other local media also reported the recovery of some state properties seized by the accused.

Among the detainees are the director of Cadastral Affairs in Lattakia and his assistant, two former mayors of Lattakia city, and the former director of the technical services department. Also among the accused is a member of the People’s Assembly, amid reports of demands to lift his immunity for arrest.

The current head of the Lattakia Governorate Council announced on September 10 the transfer of five files to the monitoring and inspection authorities, including files regarding transgressions in the Lattakia City Council, the General Housing Establishment, and other projects, where corruption and waste exceed billions of Syrian pounds, according to Al-Watan.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister issued Resolution No. 1751 on November 13 to form a committee to count and study all properties whose zoning status was modified in Lattakia, believed to involve more than 180 properties, as well as study the modifications to the building code. The committee includes the Deputy Minister of Local Administration and Environment, the Deputy Minister of Public Works and Housing, the head of the Lattakia City Council, a judge from the State Council, the director of the financial directorate of the governorate, and the director of the real estate services directorate.

As some local news outlets reported, Mr Salem is supported by Bouthaina Shaaban, the political advisor to Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, with whom he has a familial connection. He previously held the position of head of the Criminal Security Branch in Lattakia and is one of the longest-serving governors among those appointed since 2011. He served as the governor of Lattakia for seven years, from 2014 to 2021.

In Syria, the governor sits at the head of the highest executive authority in their governorate and is directly appointed by the President of the Republic. According to Local Administration Law No. 107 of 2011, the governor is the representative of the central authority, an agent for all ministries, and is appointed and dismissed by decree. The law also states that the governor is, by default, a member of the Higher Council for Local Administration, and the governor chairs the Executive Office in the province, which in turn is part of the Governorate Council. The governor has the right to name members of the permanent or temporary committees that they establish, and they have the powers of judicial police in the case of flagrant crimes. They are responsible for contracting, and ordering expenditure for the governorate budget, and all official directorates in the governorate are subject to their written orders.

Reports in local media have pointed to corruption cases exceeding SYP 52 billion, most notably real estate issues, such as overlooking major cases of unlicensed construction, including an unauthorised increase in the number of storeys, in exchange for the governor and his partners receiving a share in each building. Some local networks have reported that the number of properties registered in the name of the governor, his wife, and his children exceeds 100 properties. However, The Syria Report has not been able to verify the accuracy of this information.

However, according to media reports, the most prominent case of unlicensed construction committed by the governor relates to the Zeitouna residential project in Al-Mashaher area of Lattakia city, which was established on land without detailed zoning plans to date. The general zoning plan for the area had envisaged the construction of schools, public parks, and housing.

It is unclear who owns the land and whether it is private or expropriated. In any case, the project contractor, in partnership with the former governor, built a luxurious residential project in Zeitouna without leaving space for gardens and schools. Theoretically, this means that despite its luxury, the project is considered informal, built on public property, or land commonly owned but not subdivided in the Land Records. Consequently, the residential apartments in the project will not be noted in the Land Records. They will not be eligible for subdivision and registration in the names of their buyers. However, in practice, the buyers were granted official ownership deeds for these apartments, meaning the official documents were falsified.

The opposition website Al-Hal Net reported in 2021 that developers of residential apartments in Zeitouna had begun requiring applicants to pay half the property’s value in advance. According to the website, the apartment was valued at more than SYP 100 million at that time.

In August 2021, Al-Wahda published an interview with the director of the Zeitouna project, who said the buildings included shops, commercial markets, storeys designated for offices, and, above them, 10 residential storeys. The engineer indicated that the project began in 2017 and was completed in multiple phases. The extent of completion of the project and whether it is partially or fully inhabited is unclear amidst news of fraud and corruption in connecting the electricity, sewage, and water networks.

Moreover, news leaked about the same contractor and the former governor extorting a large property from a private company in the Al-Slaybiyeh real estate area and incorporating it into the Zeitouna project. Additionally, the former governor granted approval to change the zoning status of some areas from commercial to residential, allowing for the construction of additional storeys while maintaining their commercial nature. Some pro-regime influencers on social media revealed an agreement between members of the arrested network to inflate the prices of certain properties artificially.

This news of the former governor’s corruption does not come as a surprise. It is a quasi-official way of dealing with influential regime officials whose interests conflict with those more powerful than them. For example, a similar case happened with the former businessman Rami Makhlouf. With the lack of transparency in the official media and the inability to access the real reasons that led to the opening of corruption files against the former governor of Lattakia, unconfirmed rumours circulate that the problem stems from the former governor and his partner, the contractor in the Zeitouna project, refusing to pay USD 10 million to one of the influential senior officials in the state. However, The Syria Report was unable to substantiate this rumour.

Explained: Aleppo City Zoning Plans

04-07-2023/in Analysis & Features, HLP /by Rand Shamaa

The earliest known landmarks in Aleppo date back to the Greek era, when the city was called Beroea. At the time, the city had a grid-like structure built around a citadel, the remains of which are today’s Jalloum neighbourhood and a network of commercial markets within the ancient citadel walls. During the Byzantine era, the city expanded, and districts like Bousita and Farafra arose. In the mid-13th century, suburbs such as the Misabbin and Dubbagha districts appeared outside the castle walls. In the early 16th century, new areas such as Mashariqa, Kallasa, Bab Al-Maqam, Bab Al-Nairab, Banqusa, and the Maraashi district began to appear as gathering spots for Turks coming from Maraash, with Christian suburbs arising in Salib Al-Kubra, Salib Al-Sughra and Al-Jdeida. During this period, new neighbourhoods appeared named after the major industries established there, such as the Al-Najarin (carpenters), Al-Bayada (copper or brass work polishers) and Al-Qazazin (glassworkers).

The first attempt to formally zone Aleppo dates back to the late Ottoman period. In 1867, the first municipality in the city was established and had an area of about 550 hectares. In 1882, the Ottoman authorities commissioned a German engineer named Jung to draw up the city’s first zoning plan. Jung adopted the principle of wide streets and a grid plan for the city, completing it in 1899. The Department of Technical Affairs in Aleppo adopted the project in 1915.

However, the zoning plans for present-day Aleppo date back to 1954, by the French architect André Gutton. He oversaw a new zoning plan with a Western urban character, with wide streets and multi-storey buildings, linking the city centre with its urban expansion zones. Under this plan, roads were paved, including the one that connected the Umayyad Mosque and the citadel, causing partial or complete demolition of some archaeological buildings, including Hammam Al-Wasani, Khan Al-Wazir, Khan Al-Saboun, Al-Matbakh Al-Ajami, and the Sharfia School.

In 1974, Japanese expert Banshuya made a new zoning plan for Aleppo, raising many objections. Based on this plan, the Aleppo municipality began to establish a new centre for the city on the part of the historic city centre. The municipality commissioned the engineering unit from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Aleppo, with support from the Military Housing Establishment, to develop a study for the Bab Al-Faraj project, which included the construction of high-rise buildings and wide streets. The municipality expropriated more than half of the area allocated for the new city centre. It began implementing these city blocks on AbdulMunim Riyad Street. During the preparation stage, work crews found parts of the ancient wall of Bab Al-Faraj, which extends from Bab Al-Faraj Square to Bab Al-Nasr.

The Old City was subsequently added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the Ministry of Culture registered the neighbourhoods within the citadel walls as archaeological areas where demolition and construction are prohibited. Only restoration would be allowed in those areas under Decision No. 47 of 1979, coinciding with UNESCO issuing two successive reports in 1979 and 1980 calling for preserving Aleppo’s Old City. Just a few years later, in 1983, the World Symposium for the Protection of Old Aleppo, held by the Aleppo branch of the Engineers’ Syndicate, called for the preservation of the traditional urban fabric of the Old City while adopting new ideas to provide public services there.

The Ministry of Culture issued Decision No. 15 in 1986, listing some neighbourhoods outside the Old City walls as archaeological areas where construction and demolition are prohibited. A committee for the protection of the Old City was also formed. The escalating local objections to the Bab Al-Faraj project caused its suspension, the cancellation of Banshuya’s zoning plan and the establishment of a special Old City-dedicated office in the Aleppo municipality.

Then in 2001, the General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES) began studying the new zoning plan with an area of 41,000 hectares. The new project added 20,000 hectares to cover the needs for expansion until 2015; that included 4,000 hectares for the industrial zone in Sheikh Najjar, 8,000 hectares for residential urban development, 5,000 hectares as green tourism areas, and 3,000 hectares as protected zones around the city.

The GCES completed the zoning plan for Aleppo in 2004. Still, it overlooked key planning points such as transportation, services and investment activities. Consequently, the Aleppo municipality contracted again with the GCES to update the plan and issue several detailed zoning studies.

The general zoning plan for Aleppo was reissued multiple times in recent years, aiming to receive and study objections as part of the regular mechanism for issuing such plans. Most recently, in 2018, the plan underwent final approval by the executive office of Aleppo governorate. This plan was formally issued by the Decision of the Minister of Public Works and Housing No. 2650/S in April 2022, containing 30 areas for population expansion. The plan included two real estate development zones; Al-Haidariya, with an area of 80 hectares to accommodate 7,300 housing units, and Tel Al-Zarazir, with 60 hectares to accommodate about 6,000 apartments. The plan also put in place some industrial zones, such as in Khan Al-Asal. At the same time, the detailed zoning plan for the Karm Al-Jazmati informal settlement in east Aleppo was issued and added to the approved general zoning plan for the city.

Damascus Governorate to Begin Granting Restoration Permits in Qaboun

25-10-2022/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

Under Decision No. 991, issued on October 3, 2022, the Damascus governorate has agreed to grant “permits” for restoring, reinforcing, and rebuilding parts of licensed real estate properties in the Qaboun residential area. Recipients must implement these projects within six months of receiving their permits.

The governorate’s executive office stipulates that people wishing to obtain permits must meet certain conditions. They must obtain prior security approval and documents proving the structural soundness of their properties. In addition, they must provide ownership contracts and notarised pledges that they will not request any subsequent compensation should they be ordered to evacuate the area for zoning implementation purposes.

In June 2020, the Damascus governorate announced it had issued Detailed Zoning Plan No. 105 for the Qaboun residential area, in line with Planning and Urban Development Law No. 23 of 2015. The zoning plan was meant to be approved and issued by special decree, though this has yet to happen. In May 2021, some displaced residents were allowed to return to the Qaboun residential area after having met two conditions, i.e. submitting to a security investigation at the Air Force Intelligence branch in charge of the area and obtaining structural reports confirming their properties are safely habitable.

Interestingly, Decision No. 991 restricts restoration, reinforcement and reconstruction work to legally licensed properties, excluding any informally built structures. According to sources who spoke with The Syria Report, that leaves residents able to return to and restore buildings mainly in one area, a residential housing complex of apartment blocks and one-storey homes east of the Al-Ghufran Mosque. This area was not included in Detailed Zoning Plan No. 105, meaning it will not be re-zoned.

The buildings east of Al-Ghufran Mosque survived a wide-scale demolitions campaign carried out by regime forces after they had forcibly expelled residents and opposition fighters from the area in May 2017. These buildings are licensed, were built on previously zoned plots of land and were only partially damaged or not damaged by wartime fighting. Homeowners there also have official ownership documents. Sources told The Syria Report that the Damascus governorate would not grant restoration permits for damaged buildings in the area at risk of collapse, even if they were licensed or sit on previously zoned land.

Meanwhile, the conditions for obtaining security approval mean that the property owners who are eventually green-lighted to return home are those currently living in regime-held areas and are not wanted by the security services. If returnees have any family members who are wanted, they must commit to a “security settlement.” The settlements may include an extensive security investigation, arrest if there are unresolved search warrants, and military conscription for men who have yet to complete their military duty.

Appointed in July 2022, the new governor of Damascus set aside one day per week to listen to citizens’ complaints and petitions. Multiple delegations of Qaboun residents ended up visiting him. According to the preamble of Decision No. 991, which the governor signed, the decision came at the request of a member of the governorate’s executive office during a meeting held in late September. The decision had the unanimous support of the office at a meeting on October 3. Notably, October 3 was the last day the office met before the end of its term. Local administrative elections took place in September, with the new governorate council taking its constitutional oath and electing members of the new executive office on October 17. As a result, according to The Syria Report’s sources, the new office will be charged with following up on the implementation of Decision No. 991 without being responsible for issuing it.

One of the reasons for passing Decision No. 991 may be that the Damascus governorate needs more funds to start zoning the Qaboun residential area per Detailed Zoning Plan No. 105. This comes in light of the governorate’s failure in other zoning projects in Marota City and Basilia City, raising the new governor’s fears that unlicensed construction could restart in Qaboun if displaced residents are allowed to return. Meanwhile, the governor is trying to demolish unlicensed buildings across the capital city, following extensive, similar demolition campaigns he led during his time as governor of Hama. He is considered among the Syrian governors most keen on enforcing Decree No. 40 of 2012, which concerns unlicensed construction.

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.