A newly announced real-estate development project in Egypt’s Sheikh Zayed City drew public outrage on the basis that it would unleash an urban planning catastrophe to the rather peaceful area. The housing ministry, however, chose to back the mega venture labeling it a “major leap” forward for the city.
Controversy erupted after business magnate, Naguib Sawiris, pitched in plans for building a 20-story skyscraper in the west Cairo city. Since its inception, Sheikh Zayed City has maintained a simplistic urban planning blueprint which kept construction projects to a four-story tops policy.
Locals, journalists, and writers took to social media against the project, saying it would pave the way to wreak the peace and tranquility enjoyed by the Sheikh Zayed Business Park nongated community.
The Park, where the tower was meant to be erected, is situated in the heart of Sheikh Zayed city, one of the new residential areas developed at the outskirts of Cairo.
Novelist and journalist Amr Taher, one of the Park’s residents, personally launched a series of fierce attacks, criticizing the project for its nature which he considered alien to the Park’s original overview.
Former Egyptian Housing Minister Eng. Hafallah Al-Kafrawi, according to Taher, had exclusively designed the Sheikh Zayed City without tall buildings, setting a different model for modern urban cities.
Kafrawi’s design attracted a community which matches its form and model of architecture and lifestyle, Taher said, stressing that “those who choose to live in Sheikh Zayed City, aren’t only choosing a house, but choosing a way of life.”
Taher added that a “residential tower destroys the low rise buildings concept on which the city is founded.”
For Egypt, this is a superstructure that threatens to breakdown a residential community’s model of living. For example, in Cairo’s Nasr City, original service facilities failed to accommodate urban expansions and overcrowding, Taher told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Public backlash saw a number of residents pressing charges at a number of administrative courts to stop the project, citing their fear that their “calm city” would become an “unplanned accident”.
It is feared that Sawiris’ venture would lay the foundations for a trend that could transform the city from a residential haven to a commercial hub.
Tamer Mumtaz, a local economist and real estate expert, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Sawiris’ tower will trigger an economic boom in the area, increasing land prices and open up investment opportunities.
“The fears of the city's residents are not in the right place,” Mumtaz said.
“The population is saying that the expansion of the city must be horizontal, not vertical, because vertical expansion is usually associated with densely populated areas, and leads to the growth of slums-- like what had happened in Nasr City-- but the reality is that Sheikh Zayed City has no slums,” he added, stressing that “so long that the government did not license other towers,” there is no problem.
