4.2.1. Land Use Changes

To find out the improvement in the downtown environment, it was necessary to compare the planned uses with the existing uses, to know the orientation of the development plan. The Amman Municipality land use plan of the downtown was approved based on the 1967 initiative, which consisted of about 67% central business land use, 25% commercial use, 5% recreational use and about 4% of residential use (Figure 7). This plan was a wishful plan to create central business and central commercial uses in the downtown area. Its form predicated on replacing the stream corridor with a culvert topped by a traffic pine thinking this will eventually endorse the proposed uses. This plan did not leave enough room for recreation in the place most suited for recreation in the downtown area. It was also depending on the hope that once this traffic spine was created, affluent business will flourish.

**Figure 7.** Land use plans, **A**: municipal land use plan as intended in the 1960s policy, (Source: Greater Amman Municipality; recolored by author). **B**: existing land uses (documented by the researchers).

However, to give a more detailed understanding of the current land use distribution, the classification went to a more detailed land use surveillance based on an onsite observations study. The current uses consist of about 46% mixed uses divided between light industries, markets and wholesale shops; 39% services; 5% archeological sites; 4.4% open spaces; 2.4% parking lots; 1.4% religious buildings; 1% hotels; 0.3% banks; 0.5% residential use; and 0.1% fish market (Figure 7). The services are the areas that are owned by Greater Amman Municipality (GAM). This area includes the municipality building and its plaza, Jordan Museum, Hawa Amman Radio Station and the Cultural Center. Mixed uses currently include crafts, such as furniture design and renovation; shops for mending shoes; shops for selling used clothes and shoes; workshops for making wool carpets; and some meat and candy wholesale shops. Service cars (taxis) queue along the main street to seek passengers from or to this area coming from various parts of the city. The street becomes congested and the land uses are contradicting with one another.

The aim of the improvement initiatives was to attract central commercial uses such as offices, commercial companies and institutions to make the downtown the commercial center of the capital, but the existing uses showed the polarization of mixed uses of light industrial and some of unsuitable crafts in the downtown (Figure 7).
