Model city law: A limit to structural illegality

Updated: Friday 15-05-2009

The new face of LagosKunle Awosiyan, in this piece X-rays one of the attempts of the Lagos State government at changing the physical features of the state. His report.

Before the inauguration of the present administration in Lagos about two years ago, the state had degenerated from a well-structured arrangement to a shapeless metropolis. Illegal structures had grown up indiscriminately. Developers had built houses and offices without prior approval by the state government. Many Landlords had converted residential buildings to commercial ones without being queried.

In consequence, many buildings had collapsed due to structural deformity. Though the state government operated a town planning law, it was never enforced to the latter. There was a compromise, which perhaps led to the distortion of the city design, a situation the current governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) so detested.

In his first 300 days in office, he had issued an executive order that no residential building should be used for commercial purpose. To him, the order will give the streets of Lagos a beautiful look, it deserves. But he was so disappointed that 400 days after he gave the order, some residents were yet to comply.

Last week, the governor took a step further when he signed into law a bill to provide for the establishment of Lagos State Model City Development Authority and Connected Purposes.

According to the state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Fransisco Abosede, the law proposes nine mega city development areas out of which two had already been inaugurated. These include Ikoyi/Victoria Island model city development areas. Others are Ikorodu, Alimosho, Badagry, Lekki, Epe, Agege/Ifako/Ijaye, Oshodi/ Isolo, Kosofe, Lagos Island and Lagos Central/Mainland.

To him, the creation of model city areas will not only strengthen the monitoring capability of the government but also provide autonomy for the residents to create a standard environment that so suit their way of life. As he puts it: “The residents in a particular model city area have the right to prioritise the facility they need at a given time. The government cannot dictate which infrastructure comes first. It becomes the duty of the residents to choose which infrastructure they need at any given period.”

According to him, the ultimate function of the authority is regulation and enforcement of the law, which forbids conversion of government institutional offices within a model city area to residential buildings. He emphasised that such building like the Federal Secretariat, which is being converted to residential building at present would be contravening the new law.

To alter the plan of a building or erect a new one within a model city area, Abosede said that the developer would have to pay Infrastructural Development Charge. According to the law, the infrastructural development charge is a levy on any approved development with an increasing demand on infrastructure within a model city by the authority. In case of residential building, the law stipulates an excess of two family units or 600 square metres in medium and 100 square metres in high density area.

These steps, as Abosede put it will enable the government to control the structures being erected in the metropolis, starting from the quality of materials to be used; the fittings and the contractor that will work on the project. With the new law, the authority may at all reasonable times enter premises, any land, property or water within a model city for the purpose of making inspection and surveys and ensuring compliance with the Approval Order for the model city.

Where any owner or developer contravenes the approval order of the model city, Abosede said such a developer would be forced to comply with the provisions of the Urban and Regional Planning and Development law of the state.

The law also stipulates that any owner or developer who embarks on a construction, development, alteration or modification of any property in violation or contrary to the model city plan without obtaining necessary approval commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of two years or a fine of N1 million or both. Explaining Section 27, subsection two of the law, Abosede stated that any property to which an offence is committed shall be liable to be demolished after the necessary statutory notices under the provisions of the Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law had been served on the owner or the occupier or the developer.

While signing the bill into law, Fashola had described the regulation as one of the most piece of legislation his administration had enacted to prevent re-occurrence of collapse building and carelessness of developers and structures owners. He said, “with the incidence of collapsed and unorganised building confronting the state, the new bill will become very handy as it will help in the enforcement of town planning law”.

He said that the law would assist the present administration in finding a workable solution to effectively addressing the incidence of collapsed building. This is one of the first steps this administration is taking towards removing illegal structures and incidence of collapse building, adding, “A lot more other approaches will be adopted for full enforcement of the state town planning laws and regulations on urban development.”

In his words, the Special Adviser on Political and Legislative Power Bureau, Honorable Abdullateef Abdulhakeem, believed that the law would be bringing to fore the concept of participatory development, by encouraging members of the public, members of the community development areas and associations to come on board and participate in the development of their own areas.

According to him, the law has given room for the formation of committee within the model city area, adding, “this committee is empowered to enter into any premise for the purpose of inspecting to ensure compliance with the urban development law of the state.”