Monrovia – The first youngest City of Monrovia Mayor-designate in the city’s history, Jefferson Koijee, said he will ensure that Monrovia is transformed.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, [email protected]
Koijee made the statement yesterday when he paid a visit at the Monrovia City Hall where he interacted with officials of the Council. He also held a brief meeting with the staff.
The Monrovia City Mayor-designate promised to work with staff to improve the city.
The Mayor also said his administration would continue to try to build trust between the city’s police force and its residents.
Koijee, who if confirmed would be the youngest in the history of the city, said while he is thrilled by his preferment by President George Weah, nevertheless, he is aware of the challenges as a Mayor.
However, he promised that if confirmed by the Senate, he will work to restructure the city from some of its problems, including decongestion and over crowdedness, which remain some of major problems.
It can be recalled that former Deputy Minister for Urban Affairs at Internal Affairs, Stephen Neufville said there is a need for massive and robust education and awareness on the advantages of vertical construction against the present mindset and urban consumer preference for horizontal.
He spoke at a roundtable discussion on densification versus decongestion of Monrovia City.
Neufville added that land use and zoning is a challenge to the government and has to be tackled by regulatory authorities, including the City Corporation.
“This technical dialogue is germane to the very heart of the mandate and operations of my department because there is overwhelming public debate that Monrovia is too overcrowded and therefore needs to be done with the most suggestion being decongestion,” Neufville said.
According to the 2008 census, the population density of the greater Monrovia District is 1,514 per square mile.
Monrovia is the smallest human settlement land area but the largest urban center of the country because it is the national capital land experiences the highest urban migration.
Neufville stated that “the urban growth situation of Monrovia is haphazardly compounded by the land use classification of the land mass that reveals that the built-up areas is 60%, vacant private lands/open public space is 19% and water bodies that include mangrove swamps/ wetlands is 21%.”
Habitat for Humanity Representative Matthew Ndote, at that meeting, said finding areas to relocate, cost, economic implication, and addressing livelihood must be prioritized prior to the decongestion.