Development Control in Lagos State: an Assessment of Public Compliance to Space Standards for Urban Development

Development control as a potent tool for city management ensures that the continual growth and management of a city can be such that make for orderliness, improved city image, healthy and aesthetics. It also ensures that the environmental challenges as a result of city growth can be reduced to tolerable levels. In metropolitan Lagos, development control requires special skill as a result of the daily problems the authorities are confronted with, which is attributed to the sheer size and rate of increase of these settlements and the complexities of the tasks involved. The problem ranges from uncontrolled change of use of property, non compliance with space standards and approved design, unguided and ineffective enforcement of building regulations. This paper highlights the meaning, context, relevance and problems associated with development control in Lagos metropolis with reference to space standards under the Urban and Regional Planning Development Law 2010. This submission also contains an assessment of the town planning regulation, level of compliance to building regulation and technical skills of personals monitoring compliance to space standards as specified by Urban and Regional Planning Law Decree 88 of 1992, the Lagos Planning Law of 2005 and under the Urban and Regional Planning Development Law 2010.