URBANISATION AND THE CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPMENT CONTROLS IN GHANA: A CASE STUDY OF WA TOWNSHIP

Amidst rapid rate of population growth and urbanization, the demand for land for various uses has become many and varied. With this, comes an increasing complexity of issues concerned with urban land use planning, coordination and control. Such complexities call for a more holistic and comprehensive approach to urban spatial development planning and control to ensure coordinated and harmonious development of our urban settlements so as to create environments that are health promoting, aesthetically pleasing, and yielding to economic efficiency of urban systems. This study therefore seeks to assess the enforcement development control measure by physical planning agencies to highlight the effects, challenges and the way forward to spatial transformation in Wa. Implementation of land use plans and planning standards are key challenges in the enforcement of development controls. These key issues that are emanating are enforcement capacity and unregulated practices (Capacity and Regulations). This spells out the key challenges of the enforcement of development control in Wa. There are three instruments of development control namely legislation, Planning and approval process and Monitoring and evaluation.