Tackling challenges, barriers to emergence of liveable cities
In Nigeria and, indeed, the rest of Africa, the growth of cities is quite observable but not without challenges and barriers to making them liveable unlike other parts of the world where similar developments are assets that add values and generally make for good living.
In this part of the world, multiple human settlement challenges manifesting in uncontrollable urbanization, slum development, poor access to land, transportation, lack of utilities and services, urban recreation spaces, informal development etc are raising concerns among town planners, planning consultants, and other stakeholders in the Nigeria’s built environment.
Arising from these concerns, urban and regional planning experts at an annual breakfast lecture hosted by Propertygate Development and Investment Plc noted that the emergence of liveable cities in Nigeria is hampered by not just human activities but also non-compliance to policy regulations.
“Cities are not products of a chess games, but of careful and systematic planning”, Adetokunbo Ajayi, Propertygate’s MD/CEO, noted, citing Lekki Peninsula—a sprawling upscale settlement in Lagos—where opportunity to develop a liveable city has been lost to human action.
In his lecture titled “Obtaining Building Plan Approval in Lekki Peninisula: The Conditionality of Approved Layout’, Ajayi examined the development processes in the peninsula, pointing out that the planning authority’s demand for, and insistence on approved layout as a pre-condition for building plan approval was a major drawback to the emergence of the peninsula as a great city.
Describing it as the fastest growing city in Nigeria today, he recalled that only a few years ago,Lekki was a large virgin land that provided ample opportunity for the development of a beautiful city, explaining that its choice as a case study for discourse was based on its strategic importance as an investment haven.
According to him, the condition of approved layout prior to building plan approval creates problems, leading to indolence on one hand and needless work pressure on the other among planning authorities and workforce just as it fosters atmosphere of corruption, loss of revenue, potential needless cost to the state in its financial, social-economic and political disposition.
This practice, he said, has its implications including limited access to developable land, increased land cost, curtailment of development activities, adding that it also impacts on corporate bottom line, local, state and national economies, employment creation, and also on housing stock.
Ajayi recommended a new approach to development in the area, contending that layout as condition precedent to granting excision, and requirement of layout for one hectare + parcel should continue, stressing that in built areas and already excised parcel, government should not only lead, but also use planning consultants to complement the efforts of its officials.
In his own lecture also titled, ‘Obtaining Building Plan Approval in Lekki Peninsula: The Conditionality of Approved Layout’, Ayo Adejumo, a town planner from Ayo Adejumo & Co, took a critical look at developments in Lekki and opined that government should allow development of housing estates that comply with relevant existing provisions of the Building Plan Regulations, advising that government should prepare District Plans as provided for in the Model City Plan.
“Acceptance of developments in Lekki Peninsula will guarantee coordinated direction of physical growth and development, and avoid emergence of slums and clumsy environment in that region of Lagos”, he noted, adding that developers, as stakeholders in physical development and housing provision, should always be ready to comply with international standards, best practices and existing relevant provisions of the Lagos State Urban Planning and Development Law that promote and project Lagos as a real Mega City competing with other Mega Cities.