CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Urban renewal can be traced back to the earliest days of urban development, and was noted by those who witnessed the overcrowded conditions of 19th century in London, New York, Paris and other major cities of the developed world affected by the industrial revolution. This is a programme of land development in areas of moderate to high density urban land use and has had both successes and failures. It involves the relocation of businesses, the demolition of structures, the relocation of people, and the use of eminent domain as a legal instrument to take private property for city-initiated development projects. This process when carried out in rural areas is referred to as village renewal, though may not be exactly the same in practice.

Urban renewal is a process where by a neighbourhood in or near an urban area is transformed by demolishing old structures, renovating or building some structures, building new and modern structures and infrastructures that redefine the neighbourhoods. Agbola (1987) on the other hand defined urban renewal as a relatively comprehensive community redevelopment programme through which a particular city seeks to re-fashion and rebuild the physical structures of a particular segment of the city in order to enable it to cope more successfully with the problems confronting it.

The components of urban renewal include city expansion, redevelopment, comprehensive road development, redesigning and beautification of settlement layout, upgrading of facilities and public goods and services, repair, construction and silting of drainage system within an urban centre, and enforcing slum upgrading and city development. Although, most towns in Nigeria are experiencing these urban renewal components but the rates of increase in urbanization and poverty are militating against these developments

DEFINITION OF THE PROJECT
Urban renewal project is the process of making a poor area of a city attractive for people to live and work in again by, building new houses, offices, schools, etc. and improving the existing ones.

AIM

This field survey aim was to observed the state of the surveyed area in order to ascertain if there is need for urban renewal intervention by the Government.

OBJECTIVE

• To provide for adequate expansion of the existing social facilities and establishment of new ones where needs arises.
• To minimize waste in construction, maintenance and controls of utilities and infrastructures through efficient land use.
• To arrange the existing land use in order to have a compatible and effective land use system.

SIGNIFICANCE

1. The government, the town planning committee, and other appropriate agencies will value this report as a basis for deliberation and decision-making.
2. The students will also gain from this study by using it as a source of data for comparison and reference purposes.
3. The environment of this region is to be arranged in such a way or manner, so as to make the beauty of the place evident. This environment has to be made functional and safe for working, living circulation, etc. through the arrangement of the land use and provision of basic lacking socio-economic and infrastructural amenities.

SCOPE

The study area covers only Ekanem Udom street off old Itu road in Ikot Ekpene Local Government.

LIMITATION

The study was hampered by the busy condition of the roads and the constant movement of bystanders, which disrupted attention a0 nd increased the amount of time spent on the survey.

The cost of transportation to the locations was also one of the constraint encountered in the process of this study

WHY WE NEED URBAN RENEWAL

• It drives urban productivity E.g.: Creating mixed use development projects in CBD – Creating regional hubs just outside of city limits to reduce residential and commercial pressure on inner city area.
• It creates employment opportunities
• It attracts increased investments – Intensifying use of land – Densification of area can create new market for business
• It enhance housing affordability – Brings key workers closer proximity to employment opportunities
• Capitalize on existing infrastructure – Improvement of existing infrastructure saves cost of new expensive infrastructure
• Increases tourism revenue – Improved infrastructure and services

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