City Hall opens up Nairobi’s top estates to high-rise office blocks
Already, homeowners in Riverside Drive and Spring Valley have moved to court to challenge City Hall’s decision to approve highrise apartments in their neighbourhoods. File
City Hall is reviewing its building by-laws to allow construction of office blocks in high end estates located to the West of Nairobi.
Tom Odongo, the director of planning at City Hall, said the review is being done under a new land use policy that seeks to encourage residents to work closer to their homes.
The amendments are part of City Hall’s review of existing building restrictions that have demarcated seven new zones for commercial use to ease congestion in the Central Business District.
The changes have also elevated Westlands business district to a status of equal to downtown Nairobi, aiming to ultimately disperse human and vehicular traffic from the CBD and open neighbouring residential estates to commercial property developers.
“We want a model that embraces a mixed land use to decentralise activity from the CBD,” Mr Odongo said.
City estates that currently fall within Zones 3, 4 and 5 are being demarcated into 27 new zones to reflect the new regulations that allow construction of single dwellings, highrise apartments and commercial centres.
The changes mostly affect Lavington, Riara Road and Dagoretti Corner.
All high-end estates on either side of Waiyaki Way after Westlands have also been affected.
But in a surprise move that could affect the value of property in the area, City Hall has stopped construction of office blocks on Riverside Drive - currently a host to tens of office blocks including the head offices for Prime Bank, Geothermal Development Corporation and the Commission on Revenue Allocation.
Mr Odongo said the proposed land use policy has also been informed by the rising land prices in Nairobi, which makes a case for review of land use to unlock the actual values while making it accessible to more people.
“Rezoning of the city ensures that land is utilised by more people,” he said, adding that a more detailed spatial plan for Nairobi will available in three years time.
City Hall’s change of the zoning regulations has lagged behind the actual redevelopment of Nairobi’s neighbourhoods. In the past five years, for instance, commercial blocks have infiltrated many residential estates as demand for office space forced developers to look for space beyond the CBD.
The changing land use, mostly from single dwelling residential properties to mixed use highrise apartments and office blocks, has since resulted in new planning challenges such as traffic congestion and overstretching of infrastructure including water and sanitation.
Upper Hill, Kilimani and the Westlands business hubs are the most dominant offshoots of the original CBD that have emerged from the recent exodus of major banks and insurance companies from downtown Nairobi.
Developers have in the past five years moved in to build low density office blocks in many residential estates persuaded by shifting trends in the office rental market for tenants such as small businesses offering services like travel agency and medical clinics.
Redevelopment of the old residential estates has seen land prices rise by margins of up to 150 per cent in five years, taking the price of an acre of land to as high as Sh200 million and defeating the original purpose of easing home prices by opening up more land to high rise apartments.
While the construction of most office blocks in residential estates has met with resistance from residents citing the lack of supporting infrastructure, City Hall’s intervention has ensured that developers have their way.
Planners argue that such office parks have helped ease traffic by minimising movement in and out of the estates.
Sue Muraya, a director of the Suraya Property Group — a real estate company — said that allowing the development of office parks within high income neighbourhoods is of mutual benefit to both residents and developers.
“Such developments allow people to work closer to where they live,” said Ms Muraya, whose firm is developing an office park and a four-star hotel in the Spring Valley neighbourhood.
Ms Muraya added that contrary to perceptions that the redevelopment of old estates erodes property values in the immediate surroundings, the entry of office blocks boosts home prices because office blocks are seen as additional services.
“This is a welcome step for everyone; we need functional neighbourhoods,” she said.
Joseph Gitonga, a land economist at Valuezone, said that allowing the development of commercial buildings within residential neighbourhoods creates value for land owners while boosting efficiency within the estates.
“Rezoning to allow for commercial development within estates is something that we have long waited for because it boosts overall efficiency in residential estates,” said Mr Gitonga adding that decentralising commercial centres has helped ease congestion in the world’s major cities.
But residents of the estates which have been earmarked for rezoning are expected to resist any attempts to change the profiles of their neighbourhoods.
Already, homeowners in Riverside Drive and Spring Valley have moved to court to challenge City Hall’s decision to approve highrise apartments in their neighbourhoods.
The review of building restrictions is part of a wider scheme to re-plan the entire Nairobi Metropolis.
Mr Odongo said that Nairobi’s population has been growing much faster than City Hall’s review of the development zones, creating major challenges for both residents and developers. The laws were last reviewed in 2004.
The consultants who carried out the review also want developers to be allowed to build residential buildings of between six and 10 floors in several neighbourhoods that have been classified as Zone 3 and 4 where development has been limited to four levels.
Developers willing to invest in waste management, water collection and recycling and tapping of solar energy will earn development credits to allow for even denser developments of up to two additional floors.
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