Physical Planning Administrative Structures; Impacts and Implication for Urban Development & Its Management

Abstract

This paper examines the physical planning administrative structures, impacts and implication for urban development and its management in Nigeria by identifying the various forms of administrative structures, examining how the identified administrative structures impact on the development and management of urban areas. The extensive literature reviews show-case four different and unique administrative structures; Weak Mayor-Council Structure, Strong Mayor-Council Structure, Commission System and the Council-Manager System. The purposive sampling technique was used to draw 4 planning authorities with different or similar administrative structures and how it has affected physical planning within the urban metropolis. The snowball, Purposive and Convenience sampling methods were employed for the Face-to-face interview and the documents that were reviewed on the 4 planning authorities. The thematic and content analyses were used to analyse the face-to-face interviews and over 70 archive documents. The results revealed that two of the planning authorities have the same administrative structures; The Commission System and the Council-Manager System administrative structures were reflective of the planning authorities. The impact of these structures revealed a high level of haphazard development around and about the entire metropolis, Nigeria and an implication of inadequacy of the administrative structures to control urban development and its management over the years. Based on the results obtained, recommendations were made for the academia, practitioners and policy makers.