Observations and recommendations by the organisers on the proceedings of
the British Syrian Society/MAM seminar:

“Damascus 2020: The Vision for Urban Development and Transportation"
Case Study: King Faisal Street

• The Seminar shed light on the great deal of work that has been done separately by various agencies to arrive at overall structural understandings of Damascus in urban planning terms. In particular, the work presented by the General Company for Researches and Technical Studies on the Damascus Master Plan is clearly valuable. Nevertheless, the accomplished work seems to have been done by the various agencies on individual level with little overall coordination.
  
  
• Considerable effort has also clearly been expended by the Damascus Governorate through the Old City Master Plan to bring forward ways in which the area within the walled city might be protected and enhanced. The Old City Master Plan, however, has excluded all the parts of the Old City outside the wall. 
  
  
• It is also clear that the proposals for King Faisal Street are motivated by the need for urban development in a general sense and that the proposals have been the subject of considerable work by the Governorate and others.
  
  
• It became clear during the seminar both in general terms and in the specific context of the King Faisal Street case study that the available opportunities and requirements for integrated cooperation between governmental agencies and other relevant bodies have not been respected to an adequate degree. For example in the case of the King Faisal St. area proposals the role of the Ministry of culture and the Directorate of Antiquities in particular has surprisingly appeared to be minimal. If better advantage had been taken of the opportunities legally available for involvement many, of the difficulties identified below could perhaps have been avoided.
  
  
• There was an apparent lack of a unified vision for the future of Damascus between the various governmental agencies. Indeed it would appear that there are a number of competing visions for the future of Damascus within the different agencies. In future full benefit should be taken from the existing processes to ensure a sustainable unified approach to planning for the future of the capital city and to realise full benefit from the serious work that has been done.
  
  
• Speaking specifically of the King Faisal Street area, it appears that the requirements of the World Heritage Convention have not been taken into account and namely the fact that the King Faisal area is within a buffer zone that is meant to protect the city intra muros inscribed on the World Heritage List. Parts of the proposed extension of the King Faisal Street, which foresees demolitions, are within the registered National Heritage areas and should therefore not be demolished. UNESCO World Heritage Centre reported that they had only learnt of the King Faisal St. area proposals late in the process and by accident when discussing another matter with Syrian authorities; they report that they do not consider that they have adequate details of the proposals. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre will report about the state of conservation in Damascus regarding the development of the King Faisal project during the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee next June. Should the proposed project be implemented, the World Heritage Committee could consider listing the Ancient City of Damascus on the World Heritage List in Danger.
  
  
• It would also appear in the case of King Faisal Street proposals that there has been a weakness in terms of transparency and consistency in presenting information to stakeholders in particular the local residents. Some distress, confusion and antagonism could be avoided with future similar proposals if there was greater effective involvement from the start. It would also seem that the views of academic institutions and NGOs have not been adequately sought or responded to.
  
  
• In preparing the King Faisal Street proposals it would appear that the impact of the scheme in terms of broader policy issues involved in urban structural decisions has not been considered adequately. 
  
  
• It is clear that the King Faisal area proposals are controversial and subject to much technical disagreement on a number of points including urban structural issues, heritage protection, traffic management, the environment, economic development, great social impact and urban design. Full opportunity should be taken of all the available relevant expertise both local and international and the implementation of a preliminary impact assessment study is a crucial requirement for any proposed project.

From the above observations arise a number of proposed action points:

1. An independent review mechanism should be established to consider the various visions on urban development in Syria and a clear statement of direction together with implementation guidelines should be identified so that they can be followed by all Governmental agencies whilst planning for urban development and transportation in Syrian cities and villages.
   
   
2. Better mechanisms should be established for the coordination of international support bodies concerned with urban development working with the various government agencies.
   
   
3. There should be an immediate pause in the implementation of the current proposals in the King Faisal Street area, including expropriation processes.
   
   
4. Any project for the King Faisal Street Area should not put at risk the historical urban fabric in the northern outskirts of the city intra muros or isolate the old city from what was its natural expansion scheme throughout history.
   
   
5. The establishment of a King Faisal Street Area Task Force fully representative of all relevant government agencies, taking advantage of the available international assistance, to formulate a broad strategy for resolving current difficulties and establishing future directions.
   
   
6. The UNESCO World Heritage Centre should be consulted throughout the process of revising the project of King Faisal Street area and any other similar project.
   
   
7. Legal consultations  of how the issues arising from existing expropriations in the King Faisal St. area might be dealt with in case the properties prove to be not after all necessary.
   
   
8. Clarification of the status and accuracy of the available information for the area.
   
   
9. The holding of a series of events both formal and informal to fully explore the detailed views of involved stakeholders in the area.
   
   
10. The development of a Vision for the King Faisal Street area to take account of the city needs and the World Heritage status constraints in a balanced way and in accord with realistic assumptions, in so far as they can be ascertained,  concerning the overall future direction for the city. This Vision to include consideration of:
    
    
    • urban structural issues,
    • heritage protection,
    • traffic management,
    • the environment,
    • economic and social development, and
    • urban design.
11. The development of a number of pilot projects in the King Faisal St. area to include:

• Increasing the efficiency of local traffic management
• Improving the street layouts of the existing street
• Implementation of specific restoration projects according to internationally acknowledged standards

These pilot projects would serve to demonstrate alternative solutions but should be timed to ensure that some work on the ground is taking place in time for the Year of Damascus as Arabic Cultural Capital, and should be undertaken with full consultation from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and other stakeholders.