How to deal with history “builders”

As public activists are waiting for real steps to curb unauthorized construction in the capital, the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) is forming a new body, the Civic Council for Unauthorized Construction, to monitor machinations in the building sector. This initiative comes from Pavlo Riabikin, Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration. The impression is that officials are reducing struggle against unscrupulous investors to the establishment of a number of controlling and inspecting bodies in order to know what companies have built and who has issued them the required licenses. But, in reality, it never comes to bringing the guilty to administrative or criminal justice. Take, for example, Hostynny Dvir (“Shopping Arcade”). The construction firm that undertook to restore it has been found guilty of actually ruining the monument, but Kyivites are raising funds to protect and further renovate it. Besides, an ad hoc commission has been working for three months to check the legitimacy of the previous Kyiv Council’s decisions; still earlier a memorandum was signed by the KCSA’s Architecture and City Development Department, the Kyiv Council’s Cultural Heritage Preservation Directorate, and the National League of Architects, to prevent construction in the historic center of Kyiv. Where are the results?

FOUR MONTHS TO SAVE MONUMENTS

Meanwhile, the situation is being aggravated, for Ukraine assured UNESCO two years ago that it would declare a moratorium on erecting buildings in the buffer zones of the Kyiv Cave Monastery (Lavra) and the National Sanctuary Sophia of Kyiv. This ban proved to be still more necessary and urgent after a recent accident, when a part of St. Sophia’s wall tumbled down. The defenders of historic Kyiv are pleased that the Ministry of Culture has at last persuaded the government to approve the draft law “On Declaring a Moratorium on Erecting Buildings in Conservation Areas, the Adjacent World Heritage Territories, and Historically-Formed Cities and Villages on the List of the Historic Populated Areas of Ukraine.”

What the Kyiv Council failed to do can now be done by members of the new parliament – they can vote this bill into law and submit to the president to sign. This should be done quickly because the next UNESCO session is scheduled for February 1, 2015. Should there be no ban on erecting buildings in the buffer zones by that date, the Lavra and St. Sophia’s may end up on the so-called UNESCO black list – a list of structures under the threat of destruction.

According to Iryna Nikiforova, deputy chairperson of the NGO Andriivsky Landscape Initiative, Kyiv councilors are not to rely upon because this issue has not even reached the KCSA’s land commission – in other words, it is also a long way to go to a session-room vote. But these people are to be responsible for preserving the capital’s historical face in the next year.

“I can agree that a strong construction lobby at the Kyiv Council is hindering this. Quite a large number of deputies either own some land in the buffer zone or are connected with the architects who want to carry out their projects or with building company owners. This is why a moratorium is like a death sentence for them,” Nikiforova comments.

THE CITY SPACE WILL NOT BE SAVED UNLESS THE PUBLIC INTERVENES

Instead, we hear Kyiv bureaucrats speak about the establishment of another civic body to deal with unauthorized constructions. In Mr. Riabikin’s view, what is badly needed is an active civic stand (although it would be unfair to blame Kyiv activists for passivity in handling illegal constructions).

“The situation is as follows: the Kyiv administration responds to the city development initiative by considering the question of land allotment and issue of conditions and limitations that determine the parameters of construction. Then the builder turns to the State Architectural and Building Inspection which exercises further control. The commissioning and registration of facilities is the    job of the Ministry of Justice. At this stage, there is a gap in the interaction between different governmental bodies, which leads to abuses on the part of builders. It is very difficult to forestall illegal construction unless the public intervenes,” the KCSA’s press service quotes Riabikin as saying.

But the commission that examines all the illegal decisions made by the Kyiv Council in the times of Chernovetsky is complaining about the passivity of councilors, not Kyivites. For the latter file petitions almost every day that, say, a high-rise is going to be built or a playground will be closed in a certain district of the city without the necessary license. The commission chair, Tetiana Melikhova, says they have already spotted some major violations: for example, 500 leasing decisions we made in the absence of contracts, rentals are not paid, or a small tax is paid instead. It is now up to Kyiv city councilors to decide whether or not to cancel such contracts.

“COUNCILORS ARE NOT YET INCLINED TO REVERSE ALL THESE SHAMEFUL DECISIONS”

“There is an executive body that could analyze the situation and clear the city of the worthless stuff, when decisions are not being fulfilled, leasers do not pay the rental or use premises for a wrong purpose. But I can’t see councilors make a concerted effort. They are not yet inclined to reverse all these shameful decisions. Klitschko is saying one thing, but the lawyers subordinated to him are doing an entirely different thing and trying all the time to write their criticisms. If some lobby, for example, in the building sector, has worked well, a session may not pass the necessary resolutions,” Melikhova goes on.

The ad hoc commission is now working for the return of the Heart Center into the ownership of the city, the prevention of the erection of buildings in Victory Park, the salvation of the Start stadium, etc. And there is also a “but” here – these are not the problems that once caused a major stir. Nikiforova says they only discuss the issues about which it is easier to take some measures – for example, to lessen the height of new buildings. The commission made this kind of decision about a structure at 2A Muzeiny Provulok, whereby it was allowed to add one more floor to a three-storey building – but, in reality, eight new stories came up. This approach to dealing with law-breaking investors arouses concern, for what will the same official do if the Verkhovna Rada votes for a moratorium on the erection of buildings in the buffer zones?

The City Hall made a new announcement recently on the Kyiv monuments situation – this time about a structure at 1 Yaroslaviv Val Street – the so-called Baron’s Castle. A court has ruled to strip this building of the status of architectural monument because it was not transferred from the Register of USSR Monuments to that of independent Ukraine. Vitali Klitschko instructed the relevant KCSA units to look into this situation in the shortest possible time. Is this another crowd-pleasing statement or a real step to changes?