NITP set to unveil land use planning report
The President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Dr. Femi Olomola, has said that the draft of the Land Use Planning Report will soon be unveiled.
Olomola said the document would be ready before the institute’s national conference and annual general meeting coming up in Ilorin in October.
“Be rest assured that a draft of the LUPAR will be prepared and made available in time for our next conference in Ilorin in October. All suggestions bothering on comments, observations and corrections made during this MCPDP and the previous ones in Port Harcourt and Ibadan will between now and October be looked into and possibly adopted so that we will have a robust LUPAR that we will present to a full house of the NITP in Ilorin,”Olomola was quoted as saying at the institute’s 17th Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Programme held recently in Kaduna.
A statement by the institute said the theme of the MCPDP was “Development of a multi-user template for Land Use Planning and Analysis Reporting (LUPAR) in Nigeria”.
Describing LUPAR as a novelty to expand the frontiers of site analysis report applications beyond the tradition of planning approvals, Olomola said that the MCPDP was aimed at building consensus on the new template among the practitioners and to allow for input before the report would be presented in October.
The LUPAR, which he said was conceived by his administration, would also build on the existing SAR processes and procedures, as well as add details of geographic references and further information relating to building types and conditions, title deeds, the local land use and development setting, and the permits granted on property.
He said the expanded areas of its application cut across various sectors of the economy, many of which have direct relevance to the financial sector and regulatory agencies.
According to him, the new format LUPAR, in addition to other benefits, can become a very useful and authentic instrument that supports applications for opening of corporate bank accounts, process bank loans, make requests for Insurance cover, and incorporate/register new companies with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
He said, “It will also address the traditional requirements of applications for building plan approval/permits, issuance of certificates of occupancies, and potential value to security and regulatory agencies with oversight functions on crime and enforcement of standards, among others.
“With LUPAR, it is hoped that 95 per cent of all problems related to lack of data, inadequate personnel and stress on development control will be significantly addressed. This shall lead to situations where our colleagues in government can now rely on LUPAR as a companion in their decision making process. A combination of two or three LUPARs in the same neighbourhood will, if carefully joined together, provide an updated base map of the neighbourhood at zero cost to the town planning authority.”
The Chairman of the Kaduna State Chapter of the NITP, Muhammad Ubale, was quoted as saying that Kaduna had been fortunate since its inception in having plans for the development of the state.
He added, “The first plan was drawn in 1913. Kaduna master plan was prepared in 1967 to cover the planning period from 1961 to 2017. In 2010, the master plan was reviewed and the Kaduna Spatial Development Framework was prepared for a planning period from 2010 to 2050.
“You may also wish to know that Kaduna became the administrative capital of northern Nigeria from 1917 to 1959. It became the regional headquarters of northern Nigeria from 1960 to 1966. In 1969, Kaduna became the capital North Central State up to 1975. Kaduna also became the capital of old Kaduna State which included the present Katsina State. Finally, Kaduna became the capital of the present Kaduna State from 1989 to date.”
According to Ubale, the experience of Kaduna as a regional capital and the role it is playing in the North and the entire country in general cannot be overemphasised.
PUNCH.
