Architects and Town Planners last week x-rayed the new Lagos State urban and regional laws and picked holes in various provisions of the yet to be enacted law. They called on the state to convoke a stakeholders forum where all parties will make inputs into the draft bill before it is passed into law by the State House of Assembly.

Speaking at a one-day forum organised by the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), the built environment experts also called for the enactment of a building code to guide construction activities in the country.

Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Engr Hakeem Gbajabiamila who delivered the keynote address stated that it was pertinent that the reviewed laws and regulations now before the Lagos State House of Assembly should be subjected to scrutiny by relevant professional bodies whose practices will be impacted upon one way or the other by the new set of laws.

"It is better to discuss the laws now than later in view of the fact that the various professionals in the industry will be professionally liable for any breach and error of judgement once the laws are enacted", he said.

Gbajabiamila said his ministry had in the recent past initiated a number of programmes aimed at preparing the Lagos mega city for its challenging roles, not only as the third largest mega city in the world by the 2015, but also as one of the seven African cities selected under the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

The Commissioner blamed professionals for contributing to the notorious features of haphazard developments in Lagos. "We all without exception are contributory agents to this perverse situation, either out of ignorance or blatant disregard of the law. In many instances, some of us professionals have ill-advised our clients on developments that subsequently contravene the building regulations as they affect set-backs, airspaces, land use zoning, percentage coverage, etc", he said.

According to him, the earlier "we realise that planning laws and regulations are enacted to control and regulate physical development of our towns, cities and sub-urban settlements that are dynamically evolving to accommodate the various modifications in our economic, political and physical changes as a people, the better for us and the future generation".

Giving an insight into the proposed law, the General Manager of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Board, Mr Layi Raheem said the law intends to take planning beyond street layout, land use zoning etc, to allow for a continuos, flexible and dynamic review process so as to keep planning ahead of development.

"The primary intention of the revised law and regulations is to prepare the state for its role as the third largest city in the world about eleven years from now. Therefore the initiation of the Model City concept is to set in motion a practical dispersal strategy for the various land uses", he said.

Mr Raheem said the State decided to enact a new law in line with the Supreme Court judgement which declared that the State government can repeal, amend or re-write its own town planning laws.

Two laws are in the pipeline. They are the Lagos State Physical Planning and Urban Development Law 2004 and the Lagos State Physical Development Authority Law 2004.

The initiation of the first law, according to Mr Raheem was primarily aimed at the provision of a clearly defined structure for the administration of physical planning, urban, town and regional development in Lagos state.

"It is also to identify and define the functions of physical planning and development organs in Lagos State. It clearly determines Physical Planning and Urban and Rural Development structures in the State Ministry responsible for the Physical planning and development matters as the apex body"

"The edict No2 of 1998 was also revised to be known as the Lagos State Physical Development Authority Law of 2004. The principal departure of this law is that it subsumes itself within the ambit of the Lagos State Physical Planning and Urban Development Law 2004. Apart from the enhancement of the participation of stakeholders in the planning process, this law also provides stiff penalties for unscrupulous and corrupt officials", the GM said.

Innovations brought into the new law include: the insurance policy requirement; stage certification, project display board, stiff penalties for erring government officials and introduction of total development control.

Commenting on the proposed legislation, immediate past president of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Mr Bunmi Ajayi stated that built environment professionals should have participated in drafting the law instead of coming to react to it.

"As professionals, we should keep our house in order. It is what we want that we will give to the lawyers to draft. We are the ones who should tell the lawyers what we want and he will put into into a legal language", he said.

Mr Ajayi explained that there are pertinent issues that should be considered in preparing a planning law for Lagos State. He regretted that Nigeria till date does not have a National Building Code. "It was only when the Fire Service wanted to have a fire code that we remembered that we have a document resting somewhere which needs to be revitalised", he said.

Building plan regulations according to the former NITP boss derive from the main laws. "The first question any law should answer is what is the purpose of enacting the law? Why do we need a town planning law in Lagos and what are the realities of Lagos which the law should address?

Another issue to be considered in the opinion of Mr Ajayi is "what is the constitutionality of the law considering the fact that Nigeria is a federation?"

" We should look at the socio-economic environment in which Nigeria is operating. There is mass poverty in the country and the largest employer of labour is the informal sector. In Nigeria, we make provision only for the formal sector while others become street traders and illegal occupants whose buildings will be demolished. We must plan for the informal sector. Where did we make provision for motor mechanics? We must rethink our town planning because we are planning to push people back to the streets", Ajayi posited.

The former NITP president said the proposed law must make planning mandatory. His words: "The Lagos State masterplan expired in year 2000, therefore, everything they are using now is illegal. Instead of the Lagos State government putting money into planning, they are busy harassing everybody and collecting illegal fees. Lagos has a very small land area and potential large population hence every single space must be planned. Any law that Lagos is making must make planning compulsory".

Decrying the disappearance of open spaces in Lagos, Mr Ajayi said the new law should check the habit of individuals breaking open spaces into plots.

The law, he said, should also make sound provision for participation and appeal. " They should sit down with professionals in the built environment and look at the law first before getting views from other stakeholders. They should make laws that can work and not those that will not be complied with", he said. Making a distinction between urban planning and urban development, Mr Ajayi said government is responsible for urban planning because it (government) has the power of eminent domain while urban development is the responsibility of both the government and private sector. Government, he posited, should do planning so that the private sector will get involved in urban development. A former General Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Arc Roti Delano said the government has failed to anticipate the change of use in various parts of the State and therefore plan adequately for the infrastructure.

He cited Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Ikeja and Surulere as classical examples. "Usually at the planning stage of new schemes, the town planners allow for all the spaces such as recreations, commercial, educational etc, which will allow the scheme function as designed. However, with the frequent changes in government, new faces who come to power tended to have these social areas divided up into plots thereby causing a breakdown of the planning equilibrium", he said.

Arc Delano queried why a client who is about to develop a plot of land at Lekki should be required to do a layout plan covering at least five blocks.

"Having submitted a survey plan for the building permit, it is the duty of the planning office to locate the plot on their layout and carry out the necessary inspection, after all part of the fees paid for application of a building permit is the charting fee", he said. Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the NIA, Arc Enyi Ben-Eboh had faulted the delay in granting approvals for development permits. "The process should be made a lot more user friendly", he said.

"Notwithstanding the different hierarchies in the planning authorities, monitoring of physical development in the state is not fully enforced due to lack of manpower and the criminal behaviour of certain citizens leading in some cases to collapse of buildings", he lamented.

Arc Ben -Eboh while lending his chapter's support to ongoing revision of the laws, however called for a stakeholders forum where all the parties would be adequately represented and views from a larger spectrum of the building construction professionals articulated in an unbiased manner in the final document.