Car Garages under Public Parks
The streets and sidewalks of the capital, without exception, have become car parks, where there is not enough parking to the increasing number of cars. This has become one of the daily difficulties experienced by the citizen, which is to find a regular parking for the car without having to line it on a sidewalk or in an area where they would be fined, in addition to what random parking, on both lanes, causes of heavy traffic and overcrowding. Hence the idea of providing garages, especially garages under the park grounds where there is a large number of parks in Damascus that have been consumed and now need to be rehabilitated. This can be exploited through the construction of underground garages and implementing sufficient multi-storey garages for cars while also rehabilitating the parks and decorating them, thus providing a solution to parking problems in the governorate underneath the existing parks. In 2007, Damascus governorate has developed an integrated map for the construction of garages underneath public gardens and squares, and some sites that can be exploited to build multi storey-garages. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with a Malaysian company through which the company conducted a full study of these sites, and planned preliminary designs to underground garages and the parks to-be-rehabilitated to become model parks with international standards. Through this project, Damascus Governorate is keen on developing and decorating parks through planting them with a sufficient number of trees, green areas, and geometric water pools, encompassing all elements of nature within the park. The Governorate also seeks to provide all the requirements to make the park a social, recreational place by providing adequate numbers of modern children's playgrounds conforming to international safety specifications, places dedicated to exercise, allocating corridors within the park for bicycles, providing internet service and a public library where all family members can spend their time and enjoy within the park for free. In order to solve the problem of parking lots and providing modern gardens according to international standards, the governorate of Damascus has stipulated that park investment should adhere to the following conditions: • The investor will completely implement the garage with all its accessories to be put to investment according to the parapet curriculum with the latest architectural, structural and organizational methods. (fire protection system, monitoring and traffic devices ……… ..etc.) And make use of the entire area allocated for this project in accordance with the prerequisite pamphlets set for this purpose by Damascus Governorate. • Restoring the surface as a public garden with all its requirements according to the designs approved by the administration using the latest technology so that the thickness of agricultural soil is not less than three meters and the type of vegetation correlates soil thickness while maintaining wells. Through strategic partners who have sufficient funding capacity, knowledge and experience in this area, Damascus Cham Holding will establish one or more companies for the purpose of managing and investing underneath public parks as parking garages within the conditions set by the governorate with some other commercial services in order to achieve the required economic return and provides Damascus with a continuous annual income, in addition to contributing to solve the parking crisis in the city and provide large areas of underground storey-garages.
