Master Planning
District and settlement plans from first survey to adopted framework: land use, density, phasing, public realm and the delivery sequence that makes each phase viable on its own.
41Plans deliveredHouse No. 06 · Urban & Infrastructure Planning
We draw the ground before anything stands on it.
Master planning, transport and utilities engineering, and environmental assessment for districts, ports and new settlements. Forty‑one master plans delivered since 1999, across nine countries — and a standing commitment to publish our assessments in full, including the ones that recommend against the scheme.
Master plans delivered41
Port & rail schemes9
Hectares planned38,400
Assessments published in full100%
Disciplines
Four disciplines under one drawing office.
Planners, transport engineers, hydrologists and utility engineers sit in the same room and mark up the same drawing. Coordination is not a workstream here; it is the seating plan.
Transport & Mobility
Highway and junction design, rail and port access, freight routeing and modal‑shift modelling. Every scheme is tested against a demand case we build ourselves rather than one handed to us.
9Port & rail schemesEnvironment & Coastal
Environmental impact assessment, flood and coastal modelling, drainage strategy and ecology. Baseline surveys run a full seasonal cycle; we do not extrapolate a winter count into a summer conclusion.
26EIAs lodgedUtilities & Grid
Power, water, wastewater and heat network capacity for new development — including the unglamorous question of whether the existing substation can actually take the load before anyone breaks ground.
14Network studiesProjects
Current and recent commissions.
Selected from the live book. Status is as at the last board report; "adopted" means the plan has passed its statutory adoption process, not that the ground has been broken.
| Commission | Location | Discipline | Status | Area | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Quarter Framework | Riyadh | Master planning | In delivery | 840 ha | 2024– |
| Deepwater Berth 7 Access | Jebel Ali | Transport, utilities | In delivery | 210 ha | 2024– |
| Athi Corridor Settlement | Nairobi | Master planning, EIA | At examination | 1,620 ha | 2023– |
| Tuas Freight Interchange | Singapore | Transport, grid | Adopted | 96 ha | 2022 |
| Rhône Riverside Regeneration | Geneva | Master planning | Adopted | 74 ha | 2021 |
| Coastal Defence Review | Beirut | Coastal, environment | Published | 18 km | 2021 |
| Mato Grosso Rail Spur | Brazil | Transport | Adopted | 104 km | 2020 |
Position
Three things we will not do.
A planning consultancy owned by a property group has to be clearer than most about where its loyalties sit. These commitments are in every engagement letter we issue.
i.
We publish the whole assessment
Findings are published in full, including adverse ones, and including where the client would prefer otherwise. A commissioned study that omits its own inconvenient chapter is worth less than no study at all.
ii.
We will recommend against
Eleven of the last hundred commissions concluded that the scheme should not proceed as conceived. We were paid in full for each, and we would reach the same conclusions again.
iii.
We do not plan for our own landlord
Assaf Planning does not accept commissions on land owned or under option by Assaf Estates. The prohibition is absolute and is policed by the Group's Conduct & Ethics Committee.
Contact
Bring us the constraint, not the render.
We are most useful before a scheme has a shape — when the questions are still about water, access, ground conditions and consent. Authorities, developers, port operators and landowners are welcome to write to the drawing office.
Assaf Planning FZ‑LLC, Dubai. A wholly owned house of Assaf Industries. Project status is as at the last board report and may since have changed. Areas are gross site areas unless stated.
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