Amman City Development Strategy Workshop Amman 8 February 2006

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Amman City Development Strategy WorkshopAmman 8
February 2006

• URBAN PLANNING
• 1. BACKGROUND
• Angelo DUrso
• Urban Planning Specialist

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THE PLANNING SITUATION. 1

• During the period 1955-1987 four Master Plans
  were prepared for Amman
• The Development Plan for Amman, 1955
• The Plan of 1968 along with the Civic Centre
  Development Plan (CCDP -1968)
• The IECA proposal for Amman City Centre, 1978
• The Greater Amman Comprehensive Development Plan
  (GACDP), 1987 (1988-2005).

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THE PLANNING SITUATION. 2

• The common feature of some of these plans is the
  ring and radial road infrastructure system for
  Amman.
• Most of the plans have been partially
  implemented.
• In particular, the main aspects of the 1987
  Master Plan which have been implemented relate to
  road infrastructures.

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THE PLANNING SITUATION. 3

• This implementation approach led to
• The development of Amman through zoning
• The urban development has taken place
  incrementally through fitting residential and
  other land use zones over a good system of ring
  and radial roads envisaged in the various
  planning efforts
• The implemented road system allowed Amman to
  grow without major traffic problems. But now the
  increase of traffic volumes and the weakness of
  the public transport system are becoming a
  critical issue for the further development of the
  town.

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THE ZONING SITUATION

• At the end of 2000, 51.9 of GAM area was zoned.
  In the same year about 29.6 of total area was
  built-up
• At the end of 2002, the zoned areas were 57.6
  
• At the end of 2005 the zoned area were 62.2.
• The zoning growing rate is about 2 per year

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THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK.1

• The laws governing the urban planning in Jordan
  are
• The Law on Municipal Councils (Law no. 29 of
  1955)
• The Law on Building and Land Tax within
  Municipality Areas (Law no. 11 of 1954)
• The Law on Rural and Town Planning and
  Construction (Law no. 79 of 1966)
• Law on Partition (Sub-division) within
  Municipality Areas (Law no.11 of 1968 amended by
  Law No .9 of 1984).
• Decision n. 535 of the Higher Planning
  Council-1987
• Building and Organization Systems for the City
  of Amman (no. 67 of 1979)
• Building and Organization Systems for Cities
  Villages (no. 19 of 1985)
• Expropriation Law (no.12 of 1987) and amendments
  thereto.

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THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK.2

• In general terms, the existing legislation is
  sound, however certain weaknesses need to be
  addressed. In addition, in some cases, the laws
  are not enforced
• The existing legislation (Law 79/1966) refers to
  Structure Plans which deal mainly with land
  use and infrastructures.
• The existing legislation provides for building
  standards (No. 67 of 1979) not for Urban
  Planning Standards

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THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK.3

• The existing legislation does note provide a
  coordination mechanism among public utilities
  (the GAM has planning authority only on road
  infrastructures and land use)
• The law enforcement is weak due also to the lack
  of Codes and Manuals allowing to read each law in
  conjunction with all other laws, regulations and
  decisions

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THE PLANNING ADMINITRATION. 1

• The urban planning and development sector in GAM
  is presently under the responsibility the
  Undersecretary Assistant for Planning Affairs
  who coordinates the activities of 7 departments
• The Planning Department
• The Zoning Department
• The Building Permits Department
• The Vocational and Pin board Department
• The Naming and Numbering Department
• The Expropriation Department
• The Geographical Information System (GIS) Unit

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THE PLANNING ADMINITRATION. 2

• The Departments directly linked with urban
  planning are the Planning and the Zoning
  Departments.
• The work being performed by the Departments is
  considerable, however they are facing problems
  and weaknesses.
• The problems are mainly due to external factors
  and relate to the weakness of the legislation and
  planning framework
• The weaknesses are due to internal factors and
  relate to the weaknesses of human and
  technological resources and poor coordination.

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THE PLANNING ADMINITRATION. 4

• The specific problems of the Zoning Department
  are
• Lack of feasibility on private sector requests
  for big development projects
• Lack of capacity of GAM District to prepare their
  own detailed planning (zoning)
• Lack of coordination with the service utilities
  (water, wastewater, power, etc)

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THE PLANNING ADMINITRATION. 5

• Human resources weaknesses
• Redundancy of unskilled personnel and scarcity of
  skilled personnel
• High workload
• Few career possibilities and incentives
• Too much time dedicated by managers to routine
  work.
• Technical resources weaknesses
• A non completed GIS system allowing a good
  knowledge of GAM territory consequently each
  assessment requires an individual specific
  reconnaissance work
• Absence of a Data Base establishing typologies of
  cases and relevant possible solutions according
  to previous experiences and problems solved.

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THE PLANNING ADMINITRATION. 6

• Specific problems of the Planning Department
• The human and technical resources of the
  Department are not adequate to its institutional
  tasks
• The weakness of the Planning framework reduced
  its role to few activities

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION .1

• In 2004, GAM received 1,218 complaints
• The majority of complaints pertained to
  cleanness (50.6), city lighting (16.4), waste
  and debris (14.8).
• Notwithstanding the numbers, the above data shows
  that the Amman citizens are very keen about their
  living conditions

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION .2

• .
• This means that the level of participation can be
  increased through giving prompt answers and
  follow-up, starting from ameliorating the
  existing living conditions in the town.
• Further, if the Municipality show them that
  through the involvement in the planning process
  it may be possible to reduce the traffic,
  increase the public transport, provide more open
  spaces, community services, green areas and
  better accessibility to services, the citizens
  would certainly start willing to participate in
  the process.

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COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC UTILITIES. 1

• Until the 70s the Amman Municipality was
  responsible, inter alias, for the provision of
  some other public services (water, sanitation,
  etc.). Later on, these services passed under the
  responsibility of public or semi-public service
  authorities. This fact obviously had good
  implications but, at the same time created
  coordination problems between GAM and the various
  public utilities.
• The analysis of the relationships between GAM
  and the public utilities has shown that there are
  two main problems (i) Lack of coordination and,
  (ii) Lack of involvement.

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COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC UTILITIES. 2

• A coordination mechanism is in place, however
  the coordination between GAM and the service
  utilities is still weak because
• The GAM departments cannot plan infrastructures
  other than roads because water, power and
  communication schemes do not fall under their
  authority
• There are no service corridors within the GAM
  road reserves
• The involvement of the service utilities to urban
  planning is scarce
• There is lack of Data Base regarding the
  alignment of existing pipes and cables lying
  underground .

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THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR. 1

• The level of involvement of private sector and
  professional associations is poor because
• Their experience is not fully utilized
• There are no Codes for professional practice
• The role of planner is limited to the design of
  general layouts of interventions within single
  plots.