Translated material
Deep-reaching plans
Yuri Luzhkov approved a three-year program for the development of underground Moscow
Despite the far from unambiguous assessment by Muscovites of the urban planning plans of the capital's authorities, city officials continue to transform the city. Yesterday, the mayor of the city, Yuri Luzhkov, approved the city program of preparation for the comprehensive urban development of Moscow's underground space for the period 2009-2011. According to him, the corresponding changes should be made to the updated general plan for the development of the city until 2025 .In conditions of an acute shortage of land, the developer of the document, First Deputy Head of the Department of Road, Bridge and Engineering Construction, Konstantin Korolevsky, proposed going deeper and deeper under the surface. According to his plan, in order to improve the living comfort of Muscovites in already established microdistricts, where currently there are not enough land resources for organizing transport and household infrastructure, roadways, transport hubs, parking lots, shopping, household and entertainment complexes should go underground.
“We are not starting, but continuing to work,” Mr. Luzhkov recalled that the development of the depths of Moscow is not new for the city construction complex. Already, the average ratio of the underground part of structures to their total area is about 30%. However, the maximum active use of underground space is observed only in the central zone during reconstruction or new construction, under conditions of strict restrictions on the number of floors, site dimensions and architectural style. And if here the underground part is about a third of the above-ground part, then in peripheral areas this figure is completely insignificant. According to the program, within three years the share of underground structures in the total volume of commissioned capital construction areas should increase from the current 6 to 15% and amount to 2.5 million square meters. m.
However, it seems that the most painful part of the program is not so much the construction itself, but the so-called development of the regulatory framework for the development of the “underground capital of the Moscow government.” Officials fear that amendments will need to be made, including to the Urban Planning Code of Russia. In addition, according to the head of the land resources department, Viktor Damurchiev, it is necessary to develop a cadastral plan and assessment of underground resources, as well as the city law on subsoil, which provides for licensing of underground construction. Yuri Luzhkov instructed the program developers to specify how land tax will be imposed on essentially the same plot, exploited by different owners on the surface and underground.