Call for revisions to Dubai Urban Plan 2020 following winning bid for Expo

Among the envisaged changes to the Dubai Urban Plan 2020 is more development projects around Al Maktoum International Airport and further attempts to make people use public transport

DUBAI // The city’s urban development plan will need to be revised to deal with the impact that the Expo 2020 will have on the city.

Completed in 2011, Dubai Urban Plan 2020 outlined key objectives for the development of the emirate.

However, the document is about to be reviewed in light of the winning bid to host Expo 2020, said Najib Saleh, head of the planning research section at Dubai Municipality and head of Dubai Urban Plan 2020.

“This plan is not rigid, it is a flexible plan, we have to review it again especially now after Expo 2020,” said Mr Saleh, explaining that a lot of development is expected in the area close to Al Maktoum International Airport.

“A lot of things have changed, Dubai is a dynamic city,” he said. “When this plan was approved Expo 2020 was not there, now we have Expo 2020, so we have to listen to the private sector how this will impact also on our plan.”

Mr Saleh will address delegates at the Urban Agenda 2020 conference, which forms part of the Dubai Municipality-sponsored Outdoor Design, Build and Supply Exhibition. The event will run from March 31 to April 2 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Work on the document started in 2010 when a steering committee was formed including entities such as the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, the Dubai Land Department, the Civil Aviation Authority and Dubai Maritime City.

Planners reviewed three scenarios about the expected population growth in the emirate. A low-growth scenario assumed that resident numbers will grow at a rate of 2 per cent per year. A high-growth scenario was based on the assumption that this increase would be at 5 per cent until next year, possibly rising as high as 7 per cent in the years afterwards.

The plan assumed that a medium-growth scenario was the most realistic, with expectations of population growth of 4.2 per cent.

“We estimated that by 2020, the total population will be something like 2.8 [million people],” he said.

This January, in order to assess whether the projections were correct, the team compared the actual number of people living in Dubai at the end of last year with projections in the plan. The plan envisioned 2.14 million people, while the latest data showed the population was 2.2 million people.

“This gives you an idea we are on the right track,” said Mr Saleh. “Even if tomorrow, the growth range changed to high-growth rate, that means we are going to reach a maximum of 3.4 million people. The plan can hold the capacity up to 3.2 million.”

Sustainability is a key component of the plan, said Mr Saleh, explaining that the plan aims to limit urban sprawl as a way of reducing the need to travel and the pollution associated with transport. One way to achieve this is to limit growth from the coastline into the desert within the confines of Emirates Road, formerly known as the Dubai Bypass Road.

“All the development is to be within Emirates Road, to have a compact city. We have already infrastructure ... so why not make use of that and make benefit of that,” he said, explaining that the limit is a recommendation rather than compulsory for developers.

The plan also aims to encourage what Mr Saleh referred to as transit orientated development – changing land use regulations in areas within 400 metres of stops on the Dubai Metro in a way that mixed-use developments are promoted.

The idea, he said, was ultimately to encourage more residential and office buildings to be built close to the metro, ensuring more people use it in their daily lives, and thus reducing the demand for car travel. Dubai Municipality is collaborating with the RTA on how to achieve this, he said.

“We had several meetings with RTA and we are working with them very closely,” he said. “Still it is not finalised but, of course, there will be some type of motivation for the developers.”