Space use in Central Business District of emerging economies: Regulation or rationale?

The Central Business District (CBD)[1] mimics a jungle where businesses and people compete for the best space and use because of its socioeconomic and political roles in a city. This zone attracts many users and uses, making it a focus of regulative planning, which is perceived as a useful behavioural control tool. However, whether a CBD's space user behaviour and use patterns are attributable solely to zoning guidelines and planning standards is not established. Using a case study design with Kumasi's CBD as the geographic scope, the study explored the patterns in space use within the lens of Ghana's Zoning Guidelines and Planning Standards and the factors informing user behaviour. The study found that space use in the CBD conforms extensively to the permissible activities enshrined in the guidelines, though open spaces and recreational parks are going extinct. However, some use prohibitions outlined in the Zoning Guidelines disconnect from reality and user rationality amid space use competitions. The study suggests that profit maximisation is the critical factor informing use patterns and user behaviour, aside factors like location, statutory demand, inheritance, social influence, and family decisions. The paper concludes that users’ subjective profit motives inform the user behaviour in CBDs of developing economies as against the perceived behavioural control embedded in guidelines and planning standards. It is recommended that attaining and maintaining inclusive and operative space use in the CBDs should integrate routine updating of regulatory frameworks and guidelines underpinned by rational choice models.

[1] Central Business District.