LAND USE PLANNING IN NIGERIAN

          LAND USE PLANNING IN NIGERIAN
           Introduction

Land use planning is historically about management of problems emanating from growth and change. At the inception of physical; planning, its activities were directed towards improving the health, safety and visual quality of the physical environment. The British government introduced land use planning practice in Nigeria during their rule in 1860-1960, but the Lagos township improvement ordinance of 1863 actually marked the beginning of physical or land use planning in Nigeria, and was aimed art controlling developments and urban sanitation in Lagos.

The Lagos Township ordinance was extended to cover the entire country after being amended and renamed as the township ordinance No. 29 of 19 17, and was concerned with the classification control, and regulation of construction of buildings, streets, and bridge within them. The wide scope given to it gave rise to it’s being seen as the first systematic attempt at land use planning in Nigeria. It’s main aim was the board principles of municipal responsibility, segregation between European rules and the African, Environmental Hygiene and Sanitation.

In 1928, the Lagos Township ordinance was enacted following the outbreak of bubonic plague in Lagos. As a result, the Lagos Executive Development Board was setup in 1929 as the authority responsible for planning and development Lagos. 1928 town and country planning ordinance (No. 4) based on the 1932 town and country planning act of the United Kingdom.

Shortly after independence in 1960, there was increase in population which resulted in the growth of towns and cities, and this necessitates some control mechanism to ensure orderly development of settlements in Nigeria.

In 1978, land use act was enacted to curb land speculates, ease process of land acquisition by government. The 1946 town and country planning law remained in force until 1992 when the first indigenous urban and regional planning law was enacted (Decree 88 of 1922). The law provides a binding legal basis that is most current and matching the tempo of changes for physical and development activities throughout the country.

          ROLE AND FUNCTION OF LAND USE PLANNING

i.        The main task of town planning is to reconcile competing claims for the use of limited land so as to provide a consistent, balanced and orderly development of land use (Foley, 1960’s).

ii.      The central function of land use planning is to provide a good physical environment, a physical environment of such a good quality meaning and development essential for the promotion of a healthy and civilized life.

iii.   Town planning as part of a broader social program (Foley, 1960) Also function to provide low density residential areas, faster local community life and control sprawl or conurbation growth.

          NATURE OF LAND USE IN NIGERIA

In most urban areas, land use has not effectively put under control. Most developers adopt various means to get structures in place in any part of the city.

Most Nigeria towns are undergoing rapid urbanization process; master plans are by nature too rigid to change easily in period of urbanization. Thus no sooner are the prepared that they become out of context with reality because of rapid development associated with cities of the 20” century.

          ZONING SYSTEM

Zoning system is a process through which a community divides itself into two or more district or zones allowing only designated land uses in each district and imposing certain development activity. Adopting a zoning ordinance is an exercise of regulating powers and ordinance provision must be reasonable, based on a comprehensive plan and related to health, safety, morals and general welfare of the community. Zoning is one of the many measures of government to guise the use and development of privately owned real estate.

Rural zoning is not nearly as wide spread as urban zoning, it early use was to reduce public service costs and prevent personal hardship in land cleared areas.

In Nigeria, especially the Federal Capital City (FCC) zoning is considered a useful tool for combating problems such as:

i.                   Protecting public health and safety by preventing development that could lead to ground and surface water pollution, keeping flammable structures at distance apart.

ii.                 Preservation and developing the economic base. This is of particular significance in areas where economic existence is based on natural resources, such as agriculture, recreation or running.

iii.              Improving the quality of the physical environment by screening or eliminating unsightly uses of land use as junk poles and damps, prevent lake pollution etc

iv.              Protecting properly values from being undermined by the development of incompatible uses on adjacent or nearly properties.

          ZONING REGULATION

There are three ways to categorized regulation contained in zoning ordinance.

i.                   The first distinguished between regulating provisions that seek to control the location of different kinds of land uses and those intended to influence characteristics controlling provisions concerning physical aspects within the boundaries of the plot, or tract of land involved as such as the relative position of improvement and the amount of open space.

ii.                 Zoning regulations can also be categorized according to the geographic area of application.

iii.              The third classification separates zoning restriction according to the physical characterized that are affected such as:

a. Those intended to determine population density such as lot size and coverage and type of dwelling.

b. Those concerning land structure relationships minimum set back distance, frontage, and side yard and backyard requirements for residence are almost universal.

c. Those directly controlling land use list of permitted, conditionally permitted, and prohibited uses are set-aside in certain land areas.