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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Monday,June 14, 2004.
Local planning regulations and
plight of fast food centers
Although there are exceptions, the
thread weaving together this scenario seems to be projection into public
concern at every stage of the development of the fast food industry in
the country. If there is
good news for the future of the industry, it is that it ultimately
tickles the fancy of the consumer. Allegedly, they run the processing
lines at especially a fast rate of speed to maximise production and
profit, although they are sacrificing food quality, employee safety, and
public health. Although the industry ought to be regulated by several
agencies of the government, it faces multiple problems of adherence to
and enforcement of the local planning laws. They have a fundamental
conflict in that they are supposed to both promote the industry and
regularise it in conformity to these laws. Additionally, they have overlapping responsibilities
with other government agencies, often leading to delays in taking prompt
action. In this report, Olaniyi Ola, Head, Property & Environment, takes a panoramic
view of the issues surrounding the environmental impacts generated by the
operations of fast food centres in Lagos State and other parts of the
country.
Before the brisk popularity of fast
food joints and the economic boom that hovers around it, the environment
has been the focus of primary concern for sustainability. Relentless
growth was affecting the traffic management system in the state.
Nevertheless, there are growing questions of sustainability. In its quest
for national economic supremacy among the states of then federation,
Lagos State has become a splintered haven of disconnected pronouncements,
laws, by-laws and edicts. All of theses are not just intended to regulate
the environment but also to rake in some revenues into the coffers of the
government.
The fast food
industry has pioneered and ruthlessly enforced the regime of
consolidation, homogenisation and standardisation, in both production and
consumption, which has swept over the economy of Lagos State in the past
10 - 15 years. The companies that control the industry have exerted their
enormous influence - purchasing power, economies of large-scale
production, lobbying clout - to help transform the sector.
The industry, no doubt, has helped to propel and accelerate the
spread of suburban sprawl and, perhaps, most visibly, redraws the
physical contours of traffic systems. Just as sub-urbanization has
multiple ripple effects, so too do simple and inexpensive infrastructural
changes in the tax incentives for urban infill developments of new
residential, office and manufacturing space; and, most importantly,
causing transportation ripples.
In January 2001,
government and related agencies suddenly woke up when the Lagos State
Urban and Regional Planning Board placed several adverts in national
newspapers decrying the environmental problems created by the activities
of fast food centres in different locations of the Lagos metropolis.
It gave a 15-day
ultimatum for rectification. The advert also blamed the eateries for the
terrible situations of some major traffic corridors such as Allen Avenue,
Opebi in Ikeja, Coker Road and Town Planning Way in Ilupeju, Ogunlana
Drive and Adeniran Ogunsanya Street in Surulere and other routes in
Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Apapa.
“These routes have constantly been rendered impassable at critical
hours of the day because of the obstructions and bottlenecks by those who
patronise these eateries.
The trend can
definitely not be allowed to continue. Apart from the fact that the road
users experience a lot of inconveniences, unimaginable waste of time and
resources, the effort of government in the area of traffic management and
improvement has been rendered useless.
Investigations have
shown that most of these commercial eateries occupy renovated residential
apartments and therefore constitute illegalities from the town planning
point of view and must be corrected. The board hereby directs as follows:
‘‘All affected establishments such as Mr. Biggs, Sweet Sensation, KAS
Chicken, Tastee Fried Chicken, and others must remove all on-street and
head-on parking arrangements with immediate effect,” the release pointed
out.
The statement signed
by the Urban and Regional Planning Board also mandated the eateries to
submit their building plans, proposals for eradicating the inherent
traffic problems and the Environmental Audit Analysis (EIA) reports to
the Special Applications Unit of the board.
It is pertinent to
note here that all the above instructions were handed out to these
operators for onward compliance within 15 days, making good the threat to
seal up their premises in the case of default.
In a reply to Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning (at
that time) dated February 1, 2001, the management of Mr. Biggs - a
subsidiary of UAC Foods - made reference to the public notice and
announcement with a view to informing the ministry that the issue at
stake is of paramount importance to the organisation and hence treated as
such.
“Our management is
taking a detailed look at our operations in all our centres to establish
if we are in anyway involved in ‘on-street and head-on parking
arrangement’ and where such occurs, we shall in compliance with your
directive stop them with immediate effect,” the reply stated.
It continued: “We have appointed the firm of Messrs. Femi Olomola
and Company - a firm of consulting town planners - as our environmental
and physical planning consultants on all matters relating to our fast
food centres in the state. They have our instructions to among others,
advance a case for the various changes of use involved, prepare the
Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) reports, submit them along with
application forms and relevant drawings for your considerations and secure
for us appropriate approvals. They are to conclude all these within 15
days ultimatum stipulated in the said public notice/announcement. As
law-abiding citizens, we regret any environmental problems caused by our
activities which are principally geared towards creating employment for
residents of the state and uplift the state’s economy.”
But before the
state’s Urban and Regional Planning board gave the public notice in the
first month of 2001, the traffic situation along Coker Road interlocking
the Association Avenue in Ilupeju had generated serious controversies.
In a bilateral
discussion and inspection on the traffic flow on the road on December 15,
2000, Mr. Muiz Banire, the commissioner of Transportation suggested that
the delivery end of the Mr. Biggs outlet along the road be opened for
easy driving through.
Explaining the
purpose of the utility bay, Mr. Larry Ettah, the representative of UAC
Foods enjoined the commissioner to reconsider his stance on the opening
of the bay since it serves multiple purpose of housing the transformer,
the generator and the water treatment plant.
He said that it also
serves as the discharge unit for the items brought in by the UAC vans.
Upon the assessment of the road network in the area, frontal-parking was done
in conjunction with the status report of December 11, 2000 and it was
concluded that the frontal parking should henceforth, have a diagonal
parking arrangement to facilitate easy reversing of vehicles without
having much effect on the free flow of traffic.
Also recommended is
the following: The construction of a traffic control kiosk according to
the approved design as stipulated in the status report; the use traffic
control officers trained by the training unit of the Lagos State Traffic
Management Authority (LASTMA); and the construction of speed breakers as
recommended in the status report.
When the 15-day ultimatum for rectification and
compliance expired, the officials of the Lagos State Urban and Regional
Planning Board and other related government agencies interested in the
subject matter discovered that there were complications and bottlenecks
in the instructions dished out to the operators of fast food centres in
the state, which should have, hitherto, been addressed before the
placement of the first set of advert in January 2001.
Realising this fact,
the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Board convened a
stakeholders’ meeting on March 15, 2001, which was attended by operators
of fast food joints under the aegis of the National Association of Fast
Food Operators (NAFFOR), officials of the Urban and Regional Planning
Board IDOs/LPA, members of Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Industry; officials
of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, officials of the Ministry of
Transportation, officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority
(LASTMA), officials of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA)
and a host of others. This was sequence to the outcome of an earlier
meeting held between the operators of fast food centres and the Commissioner
for the Environment and Physical Planning at that time, Mr. Kayode
Anibaba.
While the
participants agreed with the state government that the activities of the
fast food operators had affected the physical environment negatively in
the areas of traffic, safety, security, sanitation and pollution, they
also believe that the operations of the fast food companies had
contributed to the development of Lagos State through the provision of
employment, catering services and income to the government although they
reasoned that some outlets run foul of existing town planning laws in the
following areas: Unauthorised change of use; unauthorised structural
changes without recourse qualified professionals; building without
approved building plans; obstruction of traffic; and exposure to legions
of dangers.
The meeting agreed that there was the need to balance the economic
interest of the operators with that of the government in its effort to
protect the environment as the forum unanimously agreed to minimise the
problems generated by the proliferation of fast food outlets through. The
registration of all the existing fast food outlets through the validation
of their building plans and Environment Impact Analysis (EIA) report
prepared by professional town planners; undertaking abatement measures to
prevent traffic obstruction; and obtaining approval on all structures
proposed for fast food centres in the future from the Lagos State Urban
and Regional Planning Board.
In the light of the
foregoing, it is noteworthy to mention that quite a sizable number of the
operators of fast food centres in the state; Mr. Biggs - a subsidiary of
UAC Foods - appointed the firm of Messrs. Femi Olomola and Company, a
firm of consulting town planners, as its environmental and physical
planning consultant and Daily Independent reliably gathered
that the town planning concern has completed the first phase of its
assignment and this has culminated in the regularized the operations of
all the 27 fasting food centres belonging to Mr. Biggs.
In a chat with Daily
Independent, Mr. Femi Olomola, the managing partner of Femi Olomola
and Company, confirmed the reports us on the issue when he said that the
last batch of the 27 centres were regularized on May 6, 2004.
It was also gathered that the management of Mr. Biggs - a
subsidiary of UAC Foods - had paid up to N6,514,197.94k as direct cash on
the 27 centres to the government and it covers the processing fees, penal
fees, spatial enhancement fees and other fees to local town planning
authorities.
“All the town
planning approvals for the operations of the 27 came through just two
weeks ago after a concerted effort by all the people involved in the
process to regularize the activities of Mr. Biggs,” an official of the
Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Board said.
Meanwhile, efforts were made by our correspondents to reach the
Divisional Managing Director of Mr. Biggs, Mr. Chris Adedipe, who
declined comments on the issue.
A one-day workshop sponsored
by NAFFOR recently to discuss the problems and the way forward cited four
fundamental questions which government needs to clear as follows: The
first is the difficulty posed by a scenario where a tenant had to apply
for a change in use; the possibility of enforcing compliance to the
principles of change of use where a fast food joint occupies a ground
floor in a building comprising four floors; and the effect of change of
use on the processing fees of tenancy for a lease period. These issues
and a host of others have generated lots of stakeholders’ meetings on the
policy framework to treat application of eateries.
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