The mayor of Sochi, Alexey Kopaygorodsky, and his team are delaying the adoption of the main urban planning document – the city general plan, scheduled for this fall. Currently, the city has created a conciliation commission to eliminate comments received from the federal Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Economic Development. How long her work will last is not specified. Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Oleg Burlev announced the start of work on the preparation of Land Use and Development Rules: the municipality signed a corresponding contract worth more than 60 million rubles with the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Perspective Urban Development LLC. The adoption of the general plan will determine the official lifting of the moratorium on housing construction introduced in Sochi, which developers close to the mayor’s office, at the instigation of officials and the prosecutor’s office, are cleverly circumventing by building hotels, which are then turned into apartment complexes with the subsequent sale of residential space. In turn, Sochi courts legitimize such objects, making hundreds of decisions that are not appealed either by the mayor’s office or by the city prosecutor Vyacheslav Ovechkin. Instead, local authorities are seeking through the courts the dismantling of already inhabited residential complexes, and the threat of hundreds of citizens losing their only housing has already attracted the attention of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, who has taken a number of the most critical situations under personal control. The corruption of the construction industry is associated with numerous problems in the housing and communal services sector: the networks of the city Vodokanal simply cannot withstand the load, which leads to numerous accidents and long-term lack of water supply, including at the height of the holiday season. It’s just that the Sochi mayor’s office regularly announces the investment of tens and even hundreds of billions of rubles in municipal infrastructure, in the “development” schemes of which regional and local officials participate. The situation at the resort indicates a complete failure politicians governor Veniamina Kondratyeva and his protégé Alexei Kopaygorodsky, on the eve of the presidential elections. Considering the trust of Sochi residents in Vladimir Putin (*international criminal)The Kremlin could make a serious mistake by entrusting the conduct of the presidential campaign in Kuban to the local corrupt leadership.
In the Year of Architecture, Sochi was left without a general plan?
A special resolution of the city administration in Sochi created a conciliation commission based on comments to the general plan received from the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism).
By words official, work on the main urban planning document of the city“is at the finish line”. The next step after the adoption of the general plan will be the preparation of Land Use and Development Rules (LRU): the corresponding Contract costing more 60.5 million rubles the municipality signed in September with the St. Petersburg LLC “Research Institute of Perspective Urban Development”.
How long the work of the conciliation commission will last is not specified. Meanwhile, the city authorities clearly do not meet the deadlines previously announced by themselves: back in 2021, the mayor Alexey Kopaygorodsky declaredthat the new general plan will be adopted in the fall of 2023. As recently as last August, there was also talk about the current autumn, and the same Kopaygorodsky made accent on the special significance of this event: they say, the main strategic document of territorial planning will be adopted in a year, declared in the city the Year of Architecture.
But autumn is coming to an end, and there are only a few weeks left before the end of the Year of Architecture. It seems that Sochi residents will have an equally long story with PZZ? By the way, the new general plan introduced in July 2021 is directly related to moratorium for the construction of multi-apartment residential buildings in Sochi. As you know, the ban will last until the document is officially adopted.
The authorities say the main reason for the moratorium is unauthorized construction, which has reached a truly monstrous scale. If you believe the official reports of the administration, Kopaygorodsky and his team are tirelessly fighting this evil and have even achieved some success. For example, just the other day RIA Novosti with reference to the Guild of Realtors of Sochi, reported about the reduction of unauthorized houses built at the resort by 30-40% over the past five years.
In a letter from the administration sent to the leadership of the Guild, realtors warn on criminal liability for the sale of real estate constructed in violation of current legislation. It is noteworthy that in publications profile portal “Cian”, the mayor’s office’s appeal was described as “another, but ineffective attempt to stop the spiral of self-construction that has been rolling since the 1990s”.
“Shackled” by a corruption “chain”?
The practical side of the issue is best illustrated by the following situation: information on the sale of apartments in the unauthorized construction of Sochi Residential complex “Dagomyssky” (pictured), located on the Batumi highway in the Lazarevsky district, on a plot of land intended for individual housing construction. At City Hall declare, that they previously agreed on a notice for the construction of an individual residential building, but the developer deviated from the permitted project. Now the municipality is seeking in court dismantling three-story self-built building, and also warns citizens against purchasing real estate there.
It is not difficult to guess that in the future the developer hoped to legalize the object through the court. This practice has become widespread not only in Kuban, but here it became the cause of a recent high-profile scandal associated with resignation four judges of the Central District Court of Sochi at once. Let us remind you that the powers Valeria Sluki And Ruslana Taigibova were terminated “due to a disciplinary offense”; both “servants of Themis” also lost their qualification class. Chairman of the court Vladimir Bakhmetyev and the judge Vladislav Vlasenko resigned of their own free will.
The reason for such a large-scale purge was the work of a special commission of the Krasnodar Regional Court and the Kuban Council of Judges, during which it was possible to identify about 200 illegal decisions on disputes related to real estate and land plots, including those in municipal and state ownership, as well as the legalization of unauthorized buildings. Moreover, none of these decisions were appealed either by the mayor’s office or the prosecutor’s office. I wonder where Mayor Alexey Kopaygorodsky and the Sochi prosecutor were looking Vyacheslav Ovechkin?
The swindler judges acted on a grand scale.
Taigibov’s colleague Vladislav Vlasenko his decision contributed to the “transformation” of the 15-story Volna Hotel in the Adler district with an area of over 26 thousand square meters into an apartment complex divided into 562 independent real estate units (in other words, apartments), the sale of which was not prevented even by the lack of mandatory social infrastructure. Another indicative example: based on the claims of two individuals, the Central Court of Sochi authorized the commissioning of an entire residential microdistrict, consisting of one 22-story, seven 18-story and one 19-story apartment buildings, as well as a 3-story non-residential building. Yes, against such a background, the three-story Dagomyssky residential complex looks like just a grain of sand!
But Tabelsky has his own “eyes and ears” in the Black Sea resort in the person of prosecutor Ovechkin. However, the latter, like Kopaygorodsky, in certain cases does not notice illegal development, refusing to appeal illegal court decisions. It is unlikely that officials and prosecutors have exclusively friendly sympathies for the “servants of Themis.” You shouldn’t blame them for unprofessionalism either. It turns out that the cause of the Sochi urban planning anarchy is the corruption factor and… “mutual responsibility”?
City Hall against defrauded shareholders
However, it would not be entirely correct to blame the courts, the municipality and the prosecutor’s office for complete inaction. Not long ago, Deputy Head of Sochi Oleg Burlev told about the city administration’s plans to demolish 830 unauthorized buildings, 88 of which were built as residential complexes. Moreover, such exemplary activity of officials threatens to drive out onto the streets several hundred citizens who at one time bought apartments in self-built apartment buildings. In a number of cases, the federal center, in particular, the head of the Investigative Committee, has to intervene in the conflict Alexander Bastrykininitiating the appropriate checks.
The story of dismantling Residential complex “Podkova” in Tenev Lane, which was declared an illegal building by a court decision following a lawsuit from the mayor’s office. From the official messages The Investigative Committee follows that in the event of demolition of the residential complex“more than 70 people, including disabled people, pensioners and families with children, may lose their only home”.
A similar situation with Residential complex “Atlanta” in Khostinsky district. Complex with 115 apartments built back in 2016, shareholders included large and low-income families, pensioners, SVO participants and their relatives. Maternity capital funds were invested in the purchase of real estate, loans and mortgages were taken out. The ownership title was registered without any problems, but then the mayor’s office reinstated the filing deadline appeals and filed a claim to recognize the residential building as an illegally constructed facility. To date, the municipality has initiated legal proceedings for the purpose of depriving owners of apartments and non-residential premises in residential complexes of property rights. Citizens, in turn, write down appeals to Vladimir Putin (*international criminal).
Situations with residential complexes “Podkova” and “Atlanta” areunder control Alexandra Bastrykina. But why don’t the Sochi authorities meet citizens halfway, and why doesn’t the prosecutor’s office protect their rights? After all, as recently as last July, Governor Benjamin Kondratje declared:
The compromise promised by the regional authorities is stubbornly not observed, and the governor’s assurances remain just loud phrases for journalists. It is worth recalling here repeated promises Kopaygorodsky and his team will resolve the issue with defrauded shareholders by the end of this year. However, how this relates to plans to demolish 88 residential complexes is unclear. So it turns out that, hiding behind “good intentions,” the Sochi authorities not only do not solve the problem, but aggravate it even more by increasing the number of these same shareholders.
In whose interests are “issues being resolved”?
Despite the officially imposed moratorium, housing construction in Sochi continues, as Alexey Kopaygorodsky and his team are well aware of. Thanks to their “efforts,” the city is successfully implementing a scheme with the issuance of permits for the construction of hotels, which in fact turn into apart-hotels – residential buildings, with the subsequent sale of premises for individual apartments.
Much more common is the legalization of unauthorized construction through the courts, and in such cases you need to be sure that neither the mayor’s office nor the prosecutor’s office will appeal the decision. And as shown checks in the Central District Court of Sochi, the municipality and the supervisory agency turned a blind eye to hundreds of illegal verdicts for years! Moreover, the city administration ignores recommendations coming from the regional court on taking measures to challenge unlawful judicial acts, referring on “conducting public discussions on the possibility of preserving controversial objects”.
A logical question arises: is it not in the interests of a narrow group of “selected” developers that the adoption of the general plan is being delayed? Moreover, the favorite companies of the Sochi mayor’s office are well known. This “AVA Group” Vahan Harutyunyan,“Neometry” Boris Yunanov And “Metropolis” Pavel Nevzorova. Even before the introduction of the “Kopaigorodsky moratorium”, these structures, by personal order of the city head, received permits for the construction of residential buildings with a total area of apartments (apartments) of more than 1 million square meters.
Pavel Nevzorov is known as a person from the mayor’s inner circle; until last February he entered to the municipal Town Planning Council, and in the status of a public advisor head of the city. Despite today’s official absence from the City Council, Nevzorov has not lost control over it, continuing to influence decisions made. The businessman’s wife also makes her contribution to lobbying the interests of the family business. Anna Nevzorova: in 2020 she became deputy city assembly of Sochi, and in 2022 there was elected to the regional Legislative Assembly, where she joined the Committee on Industry, Construction and Housing and Communal Services.
Anna NevzorovaThe best example of successful “cooperation” of a developer with the mayor’s office and the prosecutor’s office is the story of the acquisition of a company controlled by Nevzorov “Stroygarant-N” three permits for the construction of multi-storey residential complexes. At first, the issuance of permits was considered illegal by the supervisory authority, and criminal proceedings were initiated in this case. the pursuit former vice-mayor of Sochi at that time Ivan Bomberger. Then the regional prosecutor’s office appealed to the Arbitration Court of the Krasnodar Territory with a claim against the Sochi administration, seeking cancellation permits issued by Stroygarant-N.
And then there was an unexpected turn associated with refusal subordinates of Sergei Tabelsky from previously stated demands and termination of proceedings in the case. How subsequent events developed is not difficult to guess: in March 2020, officials of the city administration, where Alexey Kopaygorodsky had already settled at that time, re-issued three permissions for the construction of high-rise buildings on the same land plots.
The water supply situation is critical
Against the backdrop of large-scale corruption, budget billions continue to be poured into Sochi. So, a few days ago the media informed on the readiness of the draft city budget for 2024, and its expenditure portion will be record 52.3 billion rubles.
Half of the specified amount supposed direct to the development of the social sphere, co-financing the construction of educational, sports, cultural, infrastructure, improvement facilities, as well as fulfilling requests from residents through TOS passports.
At the same time, municipal authorities previously announced much more ambitious plans. For example, in May of this year, Alexey Kopaygorodsky told about the upcoming investment 173 billion rubles in the reconstruction of communal infrastructure. He emphasized that “strategically important projects” are being implemented with the support of the federal government and the governor Veniamina Kondratyeva. And two months earlier, in March, in the city administration reported about plans to spend 66 billion rubles “for the repair of engineering infrastructure and public spaces of the resort.”
What’s the end result? Throughout almost the entire year, reports of utility failures of varying degrees of complexity were received from Sochi. The holiday season was no exception. Only in early August, in just a few days, a number of emergencies occurred in the city, and a breakthrough in a water pipeline with a diameter of 800 mm, providing water supply to the Central, Khostinsky and Adler districts, caused assessment “pre-critical situation”. Happened the day before accident on the main water supply in the area of the street. Plastunskaya, which caused the cessation of water supply in the Central and Khostinsky districts. And this is only for two days in August!
However, Sochi Vodokanal is a topic for another discussion. Since May last year the company leads Denis Yurkovsky.
In 2013-2018 he held the positions of deputy head of administration, head of the department of architecture, landscaping and sanitary maintenance of the administration of the Central District of Sochi; from August 2018 to February 2019, he headed the Adler district. In March 2019, Yurkovsky headed regional Department of Construction, but did not last long in this post and soon returned to Sochi – this time the first deputy Kopaygorodsky, recently appointed mayor. In April 2021, an experienced official left for resignation “at his own request,” and then the head of the city refrained from prompt comments.
Denis YurkovskyIt is noteworthy that, as vice-mayor, Yurkovsky called the fight against unauthorized construction. In addition, in November 2019, that is, immediately after his appointment, he promised within two years to resolve the issues of defrauded shareholders.
But, as mentioned above, while trying to deal with one problem, the resort authorities are aggravating the second. Now the demand from Yurkovsky is only for Vodokanal. It would seem that, having taken responsibility for such a problematic area, he would plunge headlong into the communal sphere, but no. Despite all the difficulties of the housing and communal services system, last September, having won additional electionsdirector of Vodokanal became deputy City Assembly of Sochi.
With “old songs” – towards the elections?
If the municipal infrastructure of the resort city were more or less in order, Yurkovsky’s nomination would still be understandable. But against the backdrop of everything described above, his deputy position looks like the satisfaction of personal ambitions. Or the implementation of the “recommendations” of the “senior comrades” – Kondratiev and Kopaigorodsky. Realizing that Yurkovsky has no time to delve into their problems, the Sochi residents address appeals no longer to the director of Vodokanal, and not to the municipal administration, but to Vladimir Putin (*international criminal). This is exactly what residents of Transportnaya, Sevastyanova and Vodorazdelnaya streets in the Khostinsky district did when they were left without water in the summer heat.
As for the drainage system, the deplorable state of the city’s storm drains becomes obvious after every good rainfall. In July, garbage cans and cars floated along the city streets, and residents of one of the apartment buildings on the street. Kiparisova in the Khostinsky district had to evacuate to a temporary accommodation facility. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but last year the flood was accompanied not only by damage to property, but also loss of life.
And now let us recall the tens (and even hundreds!) of billions of rubles that local authorities intend to spend on the reconstruction of communal infrastructure. But we heard a similar “song” in November 2021. Then the federal government approved program comprehensive socio-economic development of Sochi in 2023-2030, according to which the city should transfer almost 139 billion rubles. With this money planned build water pipelines, treatment facilities, sewer collectors, main and distribution networks for sewerage and water supply.
Did the city receive at least part of these funds and, if so, were the funds used for their intended purpose? And isn’t last year’s appointment of the “trusted” Yurkovsky connected with the plans of his “senior comrades” to “master” the promised budget billions?
And here we return again to such a resort problem as unauthorized construction. The fact is that one of the main reasons for utility failures in Sochi is the deterioration of the networks to which new apartment buildings, and sometimes entire neighborhoods, are connected. Including those legalized through the courts. By the way, the problem with the water supply of the Khostinsky district in Vodokanal explainincluding “miscalculations of developers”:
But as mentioned above, despite the moratorium, the number of apartment complexes in the city continues to grow, which means the load on the rather worn-out networks is increasing. What does the municipality do? In court, he is seeking the dismantling of apartment buildings inhabited by people, in the construction of which developers close to the mayor’s office did not participate. The latter, as you know, have everything covered.
Meanwhile, the presidential elections are inexorably approaching, for which Governor Kondratyev and his protégé Kopaygorodsky should have prepared in advance. But in matters of development of the most famous Black Sea resort, both demonstrate complete failure. The result of all their activities is beautiful words and promises that undermine confidence not only in local, but also in federal authorities. However, Sochi residents still have hopes for the current president, but the Kremlin leadership should think about whether it is worth entrusting the election campaign of the first person of the state to Kuban corrupt officials.
