Stakeholders in the built environment in Lagos have bemoaned the widespread distortion of the state Master Plan. The stakeholders acknowledged who spoke in Lagos recently bemoaned the lopsided schemes with which they tacitly and in some cases unscrupulously secure development rights in violation of approved layouts and master plans.
A major developer who spoke with the press on condition of anonymity on how the LekkiNorthern Business District (NBD) parking facility, meant for the general parking of over twenty business land investors in the Lekki Master plan was sold to a totally independent developer with no prior vested interest in any of the NBD land under the last administration of Lagos State.
Today, that common parking facility is a built-up community of block of flats, while the investors who erected their business buildings as planned in accordance to the master plan around the common parking space have nowhere to park their cars. This has caused traffic congestion at Olubunmi Owa Crescent in Lekki Phase One.
Lack of adherence to master plans and the failure inherent in master plans paved way for political and pecuniary abuse of the masterplan which has been identified as the major urbanization problem generating the chaos in Lagos State.
According to Dr. Tony Alabi, a Lagos-based architect, whose opinion was sought on this matter, “developers of high-end properties on government layouts operate with one set of building regulation rules under a discretional best-of-judgement aura and a myriad of privileges; while the developers of low-end properties in other areas of Lagos operate under another set of building regulation rules and best-of-judgement aura.
Dualism in the governance of the city of Lagos dates back to the colonial era when European Quarters had a set of rules for building regulation and others (Native Quarters) were classified under the Township Ordinance with another set of rules. Dr. Alabi emphasized that, Lagos is unable to decolonize herself from the moribund master plans that remain inadequate for its modern cosmopolitan and elitist population”. He lamented that the operating and building regulatory rules seem to have been designed as if the effect of environmental and scientific factors, and the physical qualities of land on which buildings are erected changes with affluence and social status in Lagos.
Multiple visits to the Northern Business District of Lekki brought clarity to a few of the prevailing issues. It was observed that, the human and traffic congestion generated from the businesses has reached unbearable points for business owners. The business district is fast becoming like any other one in Lagos suffering from the abuse of the master plan with the characteristic street chaos.
This dire situation seems to repeat itself all over Lagos. There is a widening gap between master plans and realities of land-use in Lagos. Arguments have been made that changes in master plans are bound to occur. “How do you get investors to buy into the perceived comfort of a masterplan by selling to the public as investment plots of land with an offer of common spaces that should enhance their common business good; only to jettison that master plan once they are financially locked in?”
Source: sunnewsonline
