With a skyline that shows little that is going on in terms of new physical development, Moshi city is currently in stagnation. Scarcity of land has persistently been cited as the main cause for the stagnation but then one sees an urban fabric that is dominated largely of 1-3 storey buildings.
Moshi does not need more land at the moment for physical expansion. It can expand vertically through urban redevelopment that entails increase in plot coverage. It is possible to create good compact cities. Within the context of this approach, skyscrapers of up to 20 floors or more could systematically replace the existing low rise urban fabric. The redevelopment could begin in the city centre with the urban block as the basic spatial organisation unit. Acquisition of affected landed property that would be needed for the implementation of detailed plans based on this approach should not face any problems because most of the existing urban fabric is owned by public sector firms anyway, e.g. National Housing Corporation, or is under Right of Occupancy leaseholds. The latter are state owned land plots with occupiers only having the right to use granted land for 99 years. A relatively small portion as compared to other towns in Tanzania that is illegally occupied by squatters can also be easily repossesed with the needs of the squatters integrated into the redevelopment program.
With this approach, Moshi City could be redeveloped to accommodate up to 1 million or more inhabitants from the current 300,000 (estimate). There are other cities in the world that have embraced the approach with great successes, e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong, Monaco, Gibraltar, etc. This suggested redevelopment of Moshi City could be seen as a continuation of the recent few vertical developments in the city, like the Kilimanjaro Commercial Complex and the Kibo Tower. The former, is particularly interesting, as it's design appears to have been based on the urban block concept.
Strictly speaking, the future of Moshi City lies almost entirely on this approach because there will be no land available for horizontal expansion especially northwards, westwards or eastwards. All land that may be required for such expansion is currently customarily owned by Chagga clans who would unlikely co-operate with any acquisition moves. The Chagga love Moshi City, but they love their customary land more!
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Last update: January 13, 2020
Video from 2018 by Kimaryo Foundation
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© 2015 - 2020 Jacob Kimaryo Consultancy. All Rights Reserved
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