By Jude Njoku

After waiting in the wings for the over 14 years to obtain the necessary approvals including the certificate of occupancy (C of O), the promoters of an ambitious housing scheme that would house over 250,000 residents, last week announced their intention to move to site in June.

The project which would be sited on a 354.534 hectares parcel of land at Dongo, a remote village in the Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos, was conceived as far back as 1997 but bureaucratic bottlenecks in getting the necessary approvals and the exorbitant charges slammed on the promoters for such approvals, retarded the early take-off of the scheme which is expected to deliver about 12,000 housing units in the next ten years. The developers who got their letter of allocation from the Lagos State Government in January this year after coughing out the sum of N7.6 billion for the procurement of the certificate of occupancy ( C of O ), regretted that three of their investors pulled out when the project failed to take off as planned.

Presenting details of the massive scheme to newsmen in Lagos, a member of the Technical Committee, Mr Layi Raheem explained that the promoters would spend over N90 billion on the provision of infrastructure in the proposed estate which is located about 10 kilomters from the proposed Lekki Airport project. The company, he said, has already spent about N2 billion even before the actual construction would take-off.

Bonny Island golf course... Promoters of the scheme want to replicate such

An international standard golf course, according to Mr Raheem would be the focal point of developments in the estate. The Dongo scheme which is being promoted by Messrs Giwa & Baruwa Properties Limited would be known as Tripple Tree Creek View Estate.

Noting that the major element of project failure is the understanding of cost and lack of adequate funding, Mr Raheem explained that “the promoters have directed the legal officer to prepare contractual agreement between it and Triple Tree Creek Limited to serve as special purpose vehicle for the purpose of superintending the implementation of the project”. Already, about five foreign investors have been pencilled down to put their money into their scheme but feelers indicate that the promoters may go for the American investor because of their insistence on standards.

The Dongo initiative is planned in such a way that 30 percent of the residents can have their employment within the neighbourhood.

Noting that the village where the project would be sited is an entirely rural community without potable water or electricity, Mr Raheem disclosed that the promoters plan to use the natural bodies in the area to generate power. He however regretted that the Federal Government is yet to dredge the natural bodies to make them comedically viable.

Specifically, the estate would be built on a 354.534 hectares parcel of land. The soil texture, according to Mr Raheem is of seven different types. Individual buyers would however be required to do their own soil testing.

Damage to planning

Mr Raheem who stated that the promoters were driven by the need for an urban -rural shift in view of the mega-city status of Lagos, said the scheme will generate employment for over 50,000 Lagosians. He pointed out that the development control/ building code will guide all developments in the estate.

Mr Raheem who retired as the boss of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Board regretted that a lot of damage has been done to planning in the State. According to him, most town planners, because they are civil servants, see themselves as working for the government whereas their primary concern should be the citizenry. He decried the excessive charges slammed on private developers and wondered the criteria used in determining the N7.6 billion charged them for c of o when the land is an entirely rural land with little value on it. He cited the case of a 300 hectares estate in the Ibeju-Lekki axis which would have taken off about four years ago but could not because of non-accessability.

Mr Raheem called on the State Government to be more open and realistic in its planning processes. Planning, he said, should be more of a social thing than being profit-oriented.