Due to huge vehicular traffic in the metropolis, Femi Oyedele, an estate surveyor and valuer, wants the Lagos State Government to encourage multi-storey parking lots in areas where illegal parking of vehicles on setbacks is common. Dayo Ayeyemi reports.
What is your reaction to the commencement of the collection of levies for cars parked outside the perimeter fence of buildings and companies by the Lagos State Government?
Government is a group of people which we entrust to make and implement policies in our community.
One of the regulations of our acts by the government is through urban planning laws. Government approves the building plan, maps out our communities and decides where we should use as residences, roads, industries, schools, hospitals, markets, parking lots and so on.
The government also is in charge of determining, controlling and reviewing the ratio of built-up area to the land area in a community to determine the density of the area.
One of the means of controlling the density of an area and making provisions for future expansion of roads, or making walkways is the provision of setback between the edge of the road and the perimeter fence.
This space may be created for the passage of telephone cable or water pipe. They cannot and are never created for car parks. Setbacks between roads and perimeter fences are never set aside to be used as car parks.
A property developer should be proactive enough to design his property – residential, industrial, commercial, office, hotel etc – in such a way that all the users’ cars can be parked inside the property. Where a property owner erred and decides to use the space set aside for gardening or park or aeration or lightning or tree planting or walkway as a car park, the government has two options.
One option is to ask the violators of planning laws to vacate the illegally used lot or two, to ask the violators to pay a fine.
Lagos State government, in its magnanimity, has asked the violators of its planning laws, who probably over-developed their land against the approved ratio and now have inadequate parking lots, or did not plan the usage of their sites well to accommodate all the vehicles that will be visiting the property or have changed the usage of the property from residential to commercial or from residential to the office or residential to school and now require external spaces for parking, to be paying a levy of N80,000.00 per lot or vacate the space.
Levy or fine is not a compulsory tax anywhere in the world.
They are usually charged to curb the continuous or reduce the perpetuation of usage or commitment of a crime.
Any violator of setback rules who does not want to pay the fine should vacate the setback of the government and pack inside his or her premises which is even safer.
Heritage House on Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, bought a building on Bayo Kuku Street, Ikoyi, which was converted to a car park for the property users instead of allowing illegal parking on the sides of the road.
Addax Mall on Lateef Jakande Road by 8/10, Hakeem Balogun Street, Agidingbi-Alausa, also bought a whole house that was demolished for use as a car park on 4, Hakeem Balogun Street, Agidingbi-Alausa. Zenith Bank Head office on Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, bought a whole property which it redeveloped as a multi-storey car park on Molade Okoya-Thomas Street, Off Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island.
Will this measure really reduces traffic jam in the metropolis?
If the government does not collect levies for the usage of the setbacks, other users who want to put kiosks on the setbacks also have the right to do so. The levy is a fine to discourage abuse.
Yes, it will reduce the traffic in the areas where there is grave abuse of setback rules. Some setback violators will not mind paying the levy and will make the roads to be congested.
We would still experience slow traffic but it will be better than when levies were not collected and we have traffic jams.
How best to manage the situation?
The best way for the government to manage the situation is to encourage multi-storey parking lots in areas where illegal parking of vehicles on setbacks is rife. These vehicles parked on setbacks can cause road accidents as they block the views of incoming vehicles and criminals can hide between the vehicles to perpetrate their criminal acts. If not curbed, parking on setbacks will constitute a nuisance as where they are allowed, area boys usually come to collect daily money. The daily illegal parking fee of N500 per day is more than N80,000 in a year. Mechanics may also use the setbacks to repair vehicles.
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