Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper)2224-5766 ISSN (Online)2225-0484 (Online) Vol.4, No.6, 2014 118 Single Family Housing Estates Development Dynamics in Port Harcourt Metropolitan Fringe Areas: Implication for Sustainable Urban Planning Dr. Collins H. Wizor Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Port Harcourt P.M.B 5323, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Email: collins.wizor@uniport.edu.ng Abstract Although metropolitan fringe has important role on urban growth process, multidimensional transformation occurring in metropolitan cities has become a subject to different studies. This paper examines the developmental dynamics of single family housing estates in Port Harcourt metropolitan fringe area. The Institutional/Town planning data obtained for the study includes Building Plan approvals/ Building permits in the current Port Harcourt metropolitan fringe areas from 1990- 2010 while the primary data were obtained using hand-held GPS. The paper revealed that after 1990, building plan applications for Obio/Akpor Local Government Area (LGA) began to increase. Within the years 1990-2010, a total of 20,544 plan approvals were made for Obio/Akpor LGA while a total of 6,639 approvals were made for Eleme LGA. When annual distributions are studied, the paper shows that building plan approval began to increase in Obio/Akpor LGA between 1990 and 1993 and reached to the highest point in between 2008-2010. When the building approvals from the two LGAs are studied together, it is seen that Obio/Akpor LGA has the highest development dynamics. The paper further revealed that Housing estates vary in number of houses they involve. Estates that were built 30 to 60 units are 19 (63.3%), 61 to 100 units is 20% (6 estates) and lastly 101 housing units and more is 16.7% (5 estates). The study faulted the Process of establishing single family housing estates without situating and integrating them within the overall urban master plan. It was further recommended that government should among others ensure that majority of the single family housing estates at the fringe areas be built by major building firms and adjust its zoning ordinance and map to provide areas where it will be possible to build relatively lower-cost housing estates such as garden apartments or small houses on small plots for equity sake. Keywords: Single family housing estates, Development dynamics, Fringe area, Sustainable Urban planning Background to the Study The metropolitan cities in Nigeria have been undergoing substantial changes as housing and land markets develop and socioeconomic stratification rises. Many residents have moved to the periphery from the central city even though density there remains much lower than the city core. Peripheral zones for instance, are experiencing a revitalization of employment and economic activities, (Adesina, 2004). The nature and structure of the city are both changing. Different parts of the city are changing in different ways, and much depends upon the state of the local, national and global forces (Owei, Ede, Obinna and Akarolo, 2008). The metropolitan fringe has important role on urban growth process. For that reason, metropolitan fringe is thought of not just as a geographic area within a metropolitan region, but also as a step constituting hierarchy between rural areas and central city (Adesina, 2003). The recent influx of a large number of residents to the peripheral areas of the city added a new element of complexity to the ongoing spatial restructuring in Nigeria urbanization processes. Land use trends and growth pressure in the metropolitan cities is driven by series of interrelated processes of change: economic, social, political and demographic. Multidimensional transformation occurring in metropolitan cities has become a subject to different studies. Metropolitan studies are affected by its partly urban and partly rural socio-spatial characteristics. Planners, geographers and social science researchers who have tried to explain size, form, rate of expansion, and socioeconomic-environmental effects of metropolitan areas were debating for years. Nigeria has been experiencing a great transition from rural to urban oriented economy, which has been accompanied by the increasing mobility of production factors such as: capital, labour, technology and information to the metropolitan periphery near these mega cities such as Ibadan, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Benin city, Aba, and Kaduna. Sequel to the wide spread beliefs that the metropolis are fashionable area in urban literature especially in developed countries; empirical studies have revealed a contrary view regarding the fate of cities in developing countries (Dupont 2005). Research on metropolitan cities in Nigeria started in the 1980s when sprawling began to be seen in Nigerian cities. Then, metropolitan areas were studied with their urban and rural aspects but there were some neglected issues as well (Adesina, 2007). Metropolitan areas in urban studies today are considered as areas where different development trends (economic, social and land uses) occur and therefore, these areas are subjects to many