MMDAs advised to adhere to Land Use Act

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been urged to comply with the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016 (Act 925) directive to establish Planning and Building Inspectorate Units (PBIUs) to ensure orderly spatial developments.

The Head of Physical Planning Department of the Sunyani West Municipal Assembly, Gifty Nyarko, who made the call in an interview with the Daily Graphic said although the Act mandated MMDAs to establish the unit, most of the assemblies had not complied with the order.

She added that even though some of the assemblies had complied by establishing the unit, they had inadequate resources and logistics to operate effectively.

"Most of the existing units at the assemblies do not have the requisite tools for the monitoring and supervision.”

"For instance, assessing the quality of a concrete or building, the staff usually resort to visual observation which is always not reliable," she said.

Ms Nyarko said previously there were only building inspectorate units, which were composed of only staff of the Works Department with little or no consideration to the planning matters.

"In some occasions, some of the units are manned by unqualified professional staff who may not have the requisite skills and technical competency in structural details and spatial planning," she said.

Ms Nyarko said the establishment of the units would help to curb uncontrolled physical development in the country. 

Haphazard developments  

She, therefore, called on the government to instruct the MMDAs to establish the units and resource them to reduce environmental challenges such as flooding and haphazard physical developments.

Ms Nyarko said Section 158 and 159 of the Regulations of the Act mandated officers of the unit to monitor physical developments to ensure compliance with the approved permits and with the provisions of the Act.

Ms Nyarko explained that with the passage of the Act, staff of Works Department and Physical Planning Department were to work together to oversee development control issues.

She said while a building inspector would be interested in checking the building, the quality of building materials and structural integrity, the spatial planner would also be looking at planning aspects such as zoning regulations encompassing land use compatibility or suitability of the proposed project, setbacks and accessibility among others.

Outmoded

Ms Nyarko said the use of the writings on structures such as “Stop work, produce permit" was an outmoded practice.

She explained that section 160 of the Act had outlined the format of enforcement notices, stop work notices and forms that assemblies were supposed to use to serve developers, but not using red writings on structures.

"Assemblies should not only be interested in revenue they will secure from 'stop work, produce permit' but focus rather on providing technical advice to developers," Ms Nyarko said.

She said after planning and development permits had been granted, it was the duty of the unit to go for regular monitoring and supervision, to give developers technical advice to ensure full compliance with the permit conditions.

Ms Nyarko said it was also the responsibility of the unit to ensure that developments were not carried out without permit, to curtail any haphazard development and unsafe human settlements.

She called on the public and the assemblies to strictly adhere to the regulations to reduce environmental challenges and chaotic physical developments.

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