The Planning Implications of Urban Sprawl in Akure

Introduction The accurate definition of urban sprawl may be debated but a general consensus is that urban sprawl is characterized by an unplanned and uneven pattern of growth, driven by multitude of processes and leading to inefficient resource utilization. Urban sprawl has become a pejorative term without any serious examination of its qualities or benefits and without any critical analysis of its troubled alternative – urban congestion while the formation of the world’s cities has always been determined by the means of transport available. The automobile has helped make these choices possible and easier. Automobiles offer more options and flexibility when people choose where to live, work, and shop. Tenements and luxury apartment buildings replaced agricultural land use. Urbanization is now a rising trend seen all over the world, especially in an alarming rate in developing countries. This makes cities grow both in number and in physical size. In quite a lot of instances, the percentage increase in population is accompanied by more than proportional percentage increase of an urbanized area. This is an indication that the two growth rates differ and urban area grows in a more rapid pace. The urban areas of most Nigeria urban centres have increasingly been replaced by offices and houses on larger lots. At first, people continued to work in cities but lived in sprawling suburbs. Urban growth and sprawl are almost synonymous and edge cities have become the dominant urban form. While the car is a symbol of wealth, the high cost of automobile dependence has actually eroded real economic growth. In this paper, literatures on sprawl and urban growth will be reviewed. Second, while many factors may have helped the growth of sprawl, automobile act ultimately as one of the root causes. Suburbia, edge cities and sprawl are all the natural, inexorable, result of the technological dominance of the automobile. Third, sprawl’s negative quality of life impacts have been overstated. Effective vehicle pollution regulation has curbed emissions increases associated with increased driving. The growth of edge cities is associated with increases in most measures of quality of life. Fourth, the problem of sprawl lies not in the people who have moved to the suburbs but rather the people who have been left behind. In this way the various planning implications of akure urban sprawl will be examined.