TO promote development, all tiers of government must ensure “full” implementation of planning regulations, professionals in the construction sector have said.
Speaking at a workshop on “Land administration and management in the emerging Lagos Megacity,” former Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development Francisco Bolaji Abosede and two university teachers Prof Modupe Omirin and Prof Bioye Tajudeen Aluko said that was the only way to meaningful development of cities.
The workshop was organised by the Faculty of Land Administration and Land Information System of the Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIEVS), Lagos State branch.
Abosede, who spoke on “Land use development and control in Lagos megacity,” said indiscriminate physical development and the government’s land acquisition without following appropriate legal channels through which people could buy land and develop in compliance led to the springing up of illegal structures and encroachment of open spaces in Lagos.
He said competition for land got hotter as urbanisation and development raised the demand for land. This, he said, made new and more promising uses for land to replace original and older ones. Land went to the highest bidders as their demand for different uses lead to changes in their capacities, he added.
Zoning, he explained, is the reservation of certain specific areas within a community for specific use with buildings and structures for certain reasons, limited in height, plot coverage and other stipulated requirements. He said it is a preconceived instrument for arranging the use and allocation of land for competing uses to attain optimal and efficient use for the community.
He cited the rezoning of public facilities to residential plots as being done in Ilupeju Estate, an estate planned in the 60s by Ikeja Area Planning Authority as a self-sufficient industrial/residential estate.
But over the years, Abosede said the central commercial area at Coker Road was re-zoned into residential plots by the government. “Now, almost 50 years later, there is a need for commercial zone in the estate and residential houses are being reconverted to offices, shops and even schools,” he said.
Another example, according to Abosede, is Ikoyi Park, which for decades served the recreational needs of residents of Lagos Island and Ikoyi. But suddenly, the state government subdivided it into high-income residential plots and it became Park View Estate.
Speaking on “Contemporary urban economic challenges in the emerging Lagos megacity”, Prof Omirin of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) said though Lagos contributes 30 per cent to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it lacks infrastructure provision against other mega cities in the world.
She said like most mega cities, Lagos is experiencing serious infrastructure and amenity deficits, such as poor roads, inadequate access to electricity, potable water and sanitation.
Vast settlements, she said, lack amenities, such as schools, hospitals, fire stations and police stations.
Omirin said the magnitude of the problems in mega cities is partly because planners and urban managers respond in tandem to the needs for planning and development control. The don regretted that often responsible agencies lack the necessary tools, manpower and finance to keep up the necessary services. Even where master plans and development schemes are made, the logistics of monitoring what actually happens on ground renders them redundant, she lamented.
Prof Aluko of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, who spoke on “Legal framework for land market regulation in an emerging megacity”, said the methods and instruments of legislative intervention in the real estate market depend on the ideology, which is more of a capitalist economy. He called for the repeal of the Land Use Act, 1978 that superficially touches land tenure problem.
