Statement by the Yekaterinburg branch of Yabloko, 10.11.2020

(On introduction of amendments to the Rules for Land Use and Development of the Urban District – Municipality the City of Yekaterinburg” (Decision No. 29/42 of the Yekaterinburg City Duma of October 27, 2020)

The erroneous perception and interpretation by the municipal authorities of Yekaterinburg of the task of “city development” became obvious after the decision adopted by the deputies of the Yekaterinburg City Duma in late October to amend the rules of land use and development. The majority of deputies and administration officials regarded the increase in housing construction as the main indicator of progress. How else can one explain a thorough media campaign and the rash voting.

The deputies, by their decision, virtually endowed one of the pivotal urban planning documents – the rules of land use and development – with the functions of serving the interests of developers. It is no secret that the infill construction is motivated solely by the investor’s desire to receive additional profit. Statements that the innovations are targeted at the elimination of administrative barriers are groundless. A one-third increase in the Construction Utilisation Index and permission to develop 100 per cent of a land plot will undoubtedly lead to an increase in the population density. The desire to win some kind of competition with other Russian cities in terms of the population will come back to haunt Yekaterinburg in the future with transport collapse and problems in the communal infrastructure.

In general, the chosen strategy created the prerequisites and conditions for migration processes within the region, the outflow of population from small towns and the depopulation of rural areas, and as a result, the panorama of abandoned production sites and agricultural lands in the Sverdlovsk region is becoming familiar to us.

Certainly, the municipal authorities of the regional administrative centre [the city of Yekaterinburg] are far from regional problems. The unsettling statistical data do not affect their interests, and they do not have the appropriate powers. It is generally inappropriate to point to the experience of European cities when comparing the territories of their states with our vide space. In some of the European cities, local authorities undertaken serious restrictions, adopting reasonable long-term decisions to ban any new construction within the boundaries of the historically established urban area, considering preservation of the architectural look and the quality of people’s living be the most important factor.

We believe that in the coming years, it is necessary to begin a public discussion in the city of the issue of the adoption of such a decision by the local self-government of Yekaterinburg.

Sergei Khorenzhenko,

Chairman of the Sverdlovsk region branch of Yabloko