Revision of the PDM (Municipal Director Plan) Lagos

July 2021

Following the approval of the new Land Base Law and the regime of territorial management instruments, the municipalities were given a period of 5 years after 2015 to adapt their plans, otherwise, after this period, urban planning operations cannot be approved. The deadline has been successively extended due to the inertia of the municipalities. The substantial difference between the new regime and the previous one is that there are no longer buildable lands that were previously delimited by zones with urban aptitude. In the new law, the land is no longer for development and it is necessarily classified as rustic land. Reclassification to urban land will only happen if necessary and economically viable. The legislator foresees that urbanization will be carried out according to the real needs of the populations and through an immediate and sustainable investment. The reclassification of rustic land to urban land having an exceptional character, will be limited to cases of inexistence of urban areas available and demonstrably necessary for economic and social development and the indispensability of urban qualification, translating a sustainable planning option in environmental, heritage, economic and social terms. The interest of the municipality and the interest of the property developer will be attended to. At the last Chamber meeting, the alteration by adaptation of the PDM was approved for the transposition to the new one of the norms of the previous special plans, which will now have to be included in the PDM, if they refer to norms for the use and occupation of land. This adaptation would have to be done until the 13th of July otherwise the special plans will no longer be effective.

Nothing to say against approval, which seems harmless for the time being. We already have a lot to say about the various interventions we have seen in the discussion of the subject. In addition to the fact that everyone was not aware of such an important issue regarding housing and other values, we were shocked by the intervention of a technician present to explain the necessary change. His intervention in defense of immediate transposition followed the line of self-incrimination that large debtors to banks recently made in parliamentary inquiry committees. In fact, we are witnessing a mea culpa of poor municipal management over the last 20 years in land use and planning that has provoked property speculation. We noticed an imprecise explanation about the new regime, having been assumed that they will massively resort to urbanization contracts in a hurry to be signed by 12/31/2022. We learned that in the next year and a half, the intention will be to ensure the urban operations that have already been negotiated. Over the next 18 months, the licensing fever that has occurred in the last 5 years will continue in collusion with the Municipality, which has been delaying the application of the new law that aims to safeguard environmental values, balancing these values ​​with real needs.

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