Mr Bisi Adedire, a former Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Lagos Chapter, in this interview with DAYO AYEYEMI, is of the opinion that planning permit must precede any physical development or building construction’s work. Why describing building without planning permit as illegal structure, the renowned town planner identifies high cost and delay associated with the processes among reasons home builders/developers evade planning permit.
What is so special about building plan approval?
People called it building plan approval, but as a town planner, it is called planning permit. This cuts across various across types of development. There are permits for building construction, building’s renovation or remodeling, fencing and so on. Planning Permit cuts an area whereby you have a parcel of land that is in excess of one hectare; you must obtain permit in terms of layout preparation. All these require planning permit. But as you have mentioned; building planning permit is when you have your document in terms of architectural drawings, structural drawings,engineering and mechanical drawings and all other related documents like soil test and depending on who is responsible for the construction of that particular project, you need to provide, if it is corporate institution, certificate of incorporation, tax clearance of directors. And if it is an individual, they will require your personal income tax. All these are required documents you need to summit while processing planning permit.
Why is people, especially home builders and developers want to evade this process?
Honestly speaking, in an ideal situation, individual that wants to embark on building construction supposed to know that they have to obtain planning permit. Government on its side has tried to disseminate this information to the public through fliers, radio jingles, television and national dailies. The government has tried as much as possible to let the public aware about the need for obtaining planning permit. Honestly, things are beginning to change now. You have many applications that have been submitted for approval, but maybe because of the cost that is involved in the process, that is while you see many people trying to claim ignorance. People should know that if you have a building without the planning permit, it is like you don’t have a stake because if government should come tomorrow, you won’t be able to lay any claim to compensation. It will be considered as an illegal structure. And where you have an illegal structure that does not have a planning permit, government will just demolish it without any compensation. I would not say that people don’t know but they deliberately pretend not to know that there is a need to obtain planning permit. However, we have been trying to encourage the state government to reduce fees chargeable on planning matters or building plan approval. By the time government increases the fees arbitrarily, it will discourage developers. This is the major reason you see people trying to evade processes of obtaining planning permit. So this is one of the issues I think are responsible for nonchalant attitudes toward obtaining planning permit.
Apart from the high cost of obtaining planning permit, what are the other discouraging factors?
Apart from the cost, the time frame is a factor. However, we thank God for what the new General Manager we have at the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Agency (LASPPPA) now and the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development at large are doing. They have evolved a strategy whereby screening exercise will be carried out before registration is taking place so as to reduce the timeframe for obtaining planning permit.
What do you mean by screening?
What I meant is that by the time you are bringing in your application like the architectural drawing, it will first go through the process of evaluation by the necessary professionals. The architects in the ministry will screen the architectural drawing. If you need to make any correction, it would be made at that point before submission of you building drawings, even before the assessment is been calculated. If it involves or requires structural engineering drawing, it will go through screening too. The engineers will evaluate it before it is processed at all. In some cases, they will go for site’s inspection. Physical site’s inspection would be taken place even before the assessment is been calculated so that you won’t take much time outside the normal procedure of obtaining planning permit. So you must have done the needful before it is accepted to be processed for approval.
What is the exact timeframe for obtaining planning approval in Lagos?
The time duration for obtaining planning permit has been streamlined in Lagos State to a minimum period of two to three weeks, but honestly in practice, it is almost unrealisable. All things being equal, if all the documentations and every other thing are ready, I can assure you that your plan will be processed to the approval stage. But where the delay usually comes from is the area of tax. I think the ministry and LASPPPA have been working assiduously to make sure that they have a synergy with the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service so as to reduce the timeframe for tax clearance. But what obtains now is that your application will be processed to an approval stage, waiting for when your tax will be cleared at LIRS before the approval will be given. To me personally, I don’t see any reason why your approval should be delayed having paid all the statutory fees, having met all the planning requirements, and now that the plan has already been processed to an approval stage. I think LIRS should not be an O-pay whereby the approval will not be released.
I leant that people paid as high as N5 millon to N50 million for obtaining planning permit, depending on the project’s type and size. Is this true?
Yes, regarding the cost implication for obtaining planning permit, we have been saying this because successive government comes and introduce various kinds of levies. In the past, the fees payable on planning permit were limited to assessment and possible 10 per cent to Local Planning Office and certain per cent of the assessment fee to the Board. What we have today is that you pay in for Assessment Fee, Stage Certification Fee, Special Enhancement Charges, Infrastructural Development Charge, and so on. So you will be paying in for five places and, at the end of the day, all these come down to the types of applications you are processing and kinds of developments. If you apply for commercial, you pay higher and if is residential, you still need to pay, but the percentage is less.
What is the relationship between high cost of obtaining planning permit and high accommodation cost?
High cost of obtaining planning permit is definitely going to be added up for every developer. I think they are out there to make money. It is an investment and on every investment you put your money into, you want to make profit. So if the government continues to increase their charges on building planning permit, definitely, it will affect the society because by the time you complete your construction, you have to calculate all the expenses incurred and charge it on whoever that is coming to buy the house or rent it.
How does it operates in other states?
Lagos is regarded as the pacesetter; and because of the influx of people to Lagos, when you are talking about urbanization now, the number of population, Lagos stands as the centre of excellence. Influx of people to Lagos on daily basis requires for high demand for housing. You cannot compare Lagos to other states. The land resource is not readily available; the government made do with what they have and that is why the demand is on the high side in Lagos. In a situation where you have demand that is higher than the supply of any commodity, definitely the price will go up. That’s what is happening in Lagos compared to Ondo, Ogun and Kwara States. But if you are talking about Abuja and Port Harcourt where the pressure on land is higher, definitely the price for land and other ancillary will be on the increase.
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