ABSTRACT
Cities are the seat of government, the financial nodes, industrial establishment centres, and indeed, the home of many kinds of people all over the world. The city structure is made up of spatial and aspatial aspects; which includes spatial views, functional organisation of community life and cultural features of the community life. The city operates as a system with interconnections and interdependences. The proper functioning of a city depends largely on its planned landuse and qualified personnel to manage planning. Land is a natural endowment from God and that when land is mismanaged, it can not be replaced. This study attempted to find out how land is planned and being managed by the Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Board (KASUPDA) in Kaduna metropolis. This study further examined how planners have faired so far in the dispensation of their profession and see how lapses discovered can be surmonted. The results indicated that although land use planning have created some of the finest manifestations of man-made environment, alot need to be done in Kaduna metropolis to achieve the prime objective of land use planning. In Nigeria, planning appeared not to have taken cognisance of some important elements in the planning process; such as cultural values and norms in the final design concepts, superimposing foreign design elements and standards to the detriment of local indigenous designs that suits the planned for. Planners have not achieved much because of non-challant attitude; undue regards to trivial matters with disregard to the real planning issues at hand. Other problems militating against achievement are shortage of professional staff, lack of proper co-ordination amongst complementary agencies, inter-departmental conflicts and rivalry. The scope and areal jurisdiction of KASUPDA is not congruent to the functional realities of KASUPDA. The planning Authority is mandated to guide and control development in 21 designated urban centres in the whole state with only 10 professional planners. In conclusion, some recommendations were made on how to improve the planning and management of land use in Kaduna by re-organising KASUPDA, streamline the planning functions to reflect priority areas and an effective land use planning machinery suggested.