The Lagos State Government and the Magodo Residents Association have reached common grounds on the contents of the review of Magodo Residential Scheme II Plan.
After protracted meetings, the two sides agreed to leave the estate as residential with no mixed developments, while those who had converted their uses would be made to revert to status quo ante.
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“It was also agreed among others that no development would be tolerated on Magodo wetlands, CMD road would remain mixed-use, while the other side of CMD road would be recovered as a buffer zone for the expressway,” a statement signed by Mukaila Sanusi, Assistant Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, said.
The statement quoted the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako decrying the unapproved change of the estate plan by residents who had unilaterally and illegally altered their uses to allow offices, religious houses and commercial activities of different types spring up in areas where they are not designated.
“It is discomfiting how the government vision of accommodating the elites of the society in an ambient environment is gradually supplanted by an unhealthy culture of arbitrariness, which, if care is not taken, may create planning disorder and throw up slumming challenges,” he said.
He recalled that the Lagos State Government, as part of its intervention of bridging the housing gap in the state, had created the Magodo Residential Schemes, strictly as medium residential estates, through the New Towns Development Authority (NTDA), which had the mandate to develop residential schemes for different strata of the society.
The Commissioner stated that given this background, government must intervene to restore order in line with the planning regulations, which stipulates periodic review of estate schemes to meet contemporary needs.
