Urban History

1 - Definition of city planning 

Urban planning is at times a disciplinary field and a professional field covering the organisation of the town and it territories. According to article 3 of the law regulating urban planning in Cameroon, urban planning is a group of legislative, regulatory, administrative, technical, economic, social and cultural measures aimed at the harmonious and coherent development of human establishments, by favouring the rational utilisation of lands, their development and amelioration of living condition, as well as economic and social development.


City planning practices and techniques comes from the putting in place of urban policies. They check town planning and management in the quest of better usage harmony and well being. City planning can be exercised by numerous categories of professionals depending on the domain of study: urban planners, architects, managers, geographers, jurist, economists, sociologists, landscapist, engineers, environmentalists, archaeologists, or still historians intervening in a pluridisciplinary team.


It is convenient to distinguish two types of city planning:

  • Operational city planning which consists in a group of equipment or construction operations, public and private initiatives realised in application of a city planning plan. 
  • Regulatory or planning city planning which consists of creating urban planning documents defining the rules to be respected within a territory. It is therefore all public law measures with the objective of determining land utilisation and occupation conditions. It is what permits to better organise, control private initiatives in matter of urban planning.

2 - City planning in Cameroon 

Cameroon has law texts regulating city planning since 1966. These law texts have evolved with time, often bringing misunderstandings manifested in it implementation, hence anarchical development of our towns for many years. In order to overcome this legal mess that is experienced by town planning field in Cameroon, a law was elaborated in 2004 regulating town planning, followed in 2008 by five application decrees. 

Cameroon has law texts regulating city planning since 1966. These law texts have evolved with time, often bringing misunderstandings manifested in it implementation, hence anarchical development of our towns for many years. In order to overcome this legal mess that is experienced by town planning field in Cameroon, a law was elaborated in 2004 regulating town planning, followed in 2008 by five application decrees. 

Despite improvement in the legal situation in Cameroon realised, it is proven that these texts are still neglected by actors in charge of implementing it on the field.

3 - Decentralised Territorial Collectivities (DTC) in the heart of the process  

DTCs are henceforth in charge of managing urban development at the scale of the territory. Yet, city planning is submitted to numerous rules that the elected representative should master to define the physical future of their territories. In effect, an urban planning decision has effects on a territory for at least 25 years; it is therefore very important for the elected representative to master the rules. 

We can summarise their responsibilities by under lining that each DTC has the initiative of land management. It is why it has the initiative to elaborate town planning documents; it instructs town planning deeds and private housing estates; and it equally has the responsibility of controlling offences and applying sanctions.
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