Planning has both social and economic aims. Socially, successful planning tends to make people’s lives happier because it results in a physical environ which is conducive to health, allowing for convenient and safe passage from place to place and facilitates social intercourse is conducive offering visual attractiveness. There are four characteristics of successful planning which are of prime importance:
- The promotion of accessibility
- The employment of resources as economically as possible so as to achieve the greatest possible measure of improvement with the limited means.
- The separation of incompatible land uses from each other and the association of compatible or mutually helpful uses.
- The carrying out of all development in a visually pleasant manner as much as practicable.
- Restrictive nature of planning – this imposes control on use and development of land. This restrictive nature is known as planning control. Here, every land owner is told how to use his land. The planning control is to prevent conflict of non-conforming use and this therefore brings about the orderly use and development of land. This thereby promotes public welfare and safety, encourages harmonious use of land and reduces the chaos/conflict that may arise from the indiscriminate use of land.
- Prescriptive nature of planning –the aspect of planning that makes land available for public use is known as positive planning while those that imposes restriction or control (over the right of) as to how a landowner uses his land is known as negative planning.
Objectives of planning (Why plan?)
- To allow for the orderly use of land
- Because of the intrinsic importance or value and uniqueness of land. Bentsi Euchil said in his book Chans Land Law (1964) “that land is mightily important to man as the trees. He said just as the root of the trees is rooted in land so also is that of man”. He went further to say that what a man is depends on the amount of land available to him and what he can do with that land. It should be noted that land has a special feature- it is subject to exclusive use and possession.
- Planning enhances adequate light and air hence healthful living.
- Because developable land is scarce, you must plan and thus make it available for the use of future generations.
- We plan because it is an element subject to exclusive possession by individual owner.
- Recognise the importance of land and thus to make it available for those who need land.
- Land is politically important (as it relates to statehood/ nationhood).
- Because land is permanent in nature, immobile and scarce, we need to plan the use of the land.
- We plan so as to ration land among its competing uses. Planning provides the rationale for allowing land among its competing uses.
- Planning is to enhance the beauty/ aesthetic qualities of our physical environment.
- Planning is to improve human specific (i.e. quality of life), improve the environs, enhance human dignity and longevity.
- Physical Planning is the conscious arrangement of an area into its physical structure; which has it origins in the regulation and control of town development; and outside the realm of market mechanism. Physical plans are revealed in development plans.
- Economic Planning: This is concerned more with the economic structure of an area and its overall level of prosperity. It works more through the market mechanism unlike the physical planning which hinges heavily on direct controls.
Aims of economic planning
- To retain full employment
- To export more goods and services to pay for import and to build up overseas assets and reserves which have been depleted.
- Advocacy Planning – this type of planning sees the city planner is of perspectives;
- As an employee of the local authority or local government
- As a consultant to the local authority
Seen in either any of these two ways, he is seen as a participant in the social welfare planning.
Roles of advocacy planning – The role he plays as a citizen is an antagonist to the local planning. The advocacy planner sees himself as a pleader of particular needs and approaches for the fulfilment of these needs. An Advocacy planner is supposed to see himself as an employee or a consultant to the local government. An advocacy planner could be employed by a citizen or group of citizen to embark upon the preparation of a planning scheme. It is believed that anybody that has been affected by any planning activity could also seek the help of an advocacy planner.
- Allocative planning – This is concerned with the coordination and resolution of conflicts, ensuring that the existing system. Because of this role, it is regarded as a regulatory planning.
- Indicative and imperative planning –This aspect of planning is concerned with the implementation stage of the planning process and it deals with method of implementation. Indicative planning lays down the general guidelines of implementation. It is more or less an advisory type of planning. Imperative planning involves specific directives and it is necessary in the implementation of planning objectives.
- Innovative planning –This is not merely concerned with planning for the efficient functioning of the existing system but also involves introducing seals. Because of this, it is regarded as development planning. In the context of a small firm, it involves marketing a new product, opening of a factory extension within a specific period of time.
