Don't forget to move the arrows

The fate of the high-rise buildings being built by the LEK company near the Novodevichy Convent will be decided no earlier than January 2009. In contrast to the inspector of the State Construction Supervision and Expertise Service (SGSNiE) of St. Petersburg, Viktor Gubenko, in whose fate the Imperial residential complex has already played its fatal role. Because of this prematurely started and temporarily suspended “construction”, a Gosstroynadzor employee lost his job.

“A completely normal situation”
Even the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, had the courage to recognize the construction of high-rise buildings near the walls of the Novodevichy Convent in September of this year as illegal. Despite the fact that, according to the developer (LEK), the complex he is building “ideally fits into the majestic and monumental appearance of the Moskovsky district, with eight towers rushing into the starry sky,” in fact, it did not even fit into the basic legislative framework. Thanks to a coincidence of circumstances, in early autumn it became clear that the LEK company did not have the necessary permits to work at this site. The procedures provided for by the rules and regulations have not been completed. The design documentation was not submitted to State State Expertise for State Expertise. No permit was issued for the construction of residential buildings at the specified LEK address.
According to information from the St. Petersburg State Construction Supervision and Expertise Service, in November 2006 the developer was given permission only to prepare a land plot at the intersection of Moskovsky Prospekt and Kievskaya Street, which was subsequently extended until April 2008. In addition, even before 2003, LEK received a construction order signed by former governor Vladimir Yakovlev. That's all.
Meanwhile, the site was thoroughly prepared. Eight towers are growing on the site at the same time, although at different speeds, each of which plans to stretch 19 floors and 73 meters high. The residential complex is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2009. According to the press service of the LEK company, almost all apartments in Imperial have already been sold.
“But the governor’s permission is not permitting documentation for construction, but only a regulatory legal act that should record the fact that a building with the following parameters will be built on this land plot,” Anna Friedenthal, press secretary of the SGSNIE, was indignant in an interview with Novaya. — Next, the company had to go through the design stage, for which the project must be sent for state examination. After receiving the conclusion of this examination, a construction permit can be obtained. The LEK company did not pass the examination and did not receive it.
“In fact, we quite calmly and honestly tell everyone: yes, the construction is being carried out illegally,” Inna Malinkovskaya, head of the press service of the LEK company, told a Novaya correspondent and continued, “this is an absolutely normal situation.” Almost all construction companies have similar problems. The process of approving and receiving documents is very complicated...

Ignorance saved officials from responsibility
The scandal erupted after in October, deputies of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Yuri Karpenko and Vadim Voytanovsky published information that “some shareholders of the Imperial residential complex are dissatisfied with the situation, want to give up the apartments sold to them, but cannot return the money invested.” Officials forced to respond to the incident began checking the LEC documentation.
As a result, the construction company was fined 1 million rubles - the maximum amount, by the way, is not comparable to the cost of even a one-room apartment from LEK. Construction itself was suspended for 90 days until the violations were eliminated. And as a final touch, in October the inspector of the State Construction Supervision and Expertise Service who oversaw this facility was fired.
“The company’s activities were monitored, but the inspector did not report in time that the construction went beyond what was permitted. This is precisely why he was fired,” Anna Friedenthal commented to Novaya.
On October 9, Valentina Matvienko reported on the sanction applied to the curator from the GSN live on the Ekho Moskvy radio station in St. Petersburg:
— The inspector of Gosstroynadzor, who led the construction project of the Imperial residential complex near the Novodevichy Convent, has already been dismissed from his post. He should have signaled in a timely manner about any violations there.
In the State Construction Supervision and Expertise Service, construction in the Moskovsky district of the city (including LEC facilities) was supervised by inspector Viktor Gubenko, who came under attack. After such an announcement live from the lips of the governor of St. Petersburg, Gubenko could not continue to remain in his job. However, to be precise, he was not fired on October 9, but only on the 15th of the same month. Which makes me think...
— I was on vacation in Orenburg. They called me. They asked me to come urgently. They held a meeting where it was announced: “here is the bad man who arranged everything for us.” And Valentina Matvienko, and television, and all the media voiced this. I was fired. Although,” explains Viktor Gubenko, “I, as an ordinary inspector, had no right to either authorize or prohibit anything. There is a town planning code that clearly states my responsibilities. It says when, how and what I have the right to check. After all, I didn’t just come and check. I must have orders from leading persons and bodies. Based on these documents, an inspection plan is drawn up. Builders are notified three days in advance and must also be provided with an inspection plan. Only then can I go and check. And that management doesn't know all this? Or doesn’t he know that the LEK company is building without permission? Without regulatory documents? Absurd!
However, already on October 16, at a press conference on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of her governorship, Valentina Matvienko, answering a question from journalists about the punishment of those responsible for various urban planning errors and construction violations (Imperial was mentioned among them), said:
“Give me all the chopped off heads!” It is important to learn to draw conclusions, and finding and punishing the switchman is the simplest task.
Perhaps no one would have remembered Inspector Gubenko. I wouldn't draw any analogies. But the mayor herself pushed to a direct conclusion, adding:
— Recently, the inspector of the State Construction Supervision Service who inspected the facility at the Novodevichy Convent was fired.
“I just found myself in the wrong place in this situation, on the wrong day, at the wrong hour,” Viktor Gubenko understands his fate very well. “But it’s futile for me to compete with those in power and big bosses.” I don't want to engage in pointless struggle. Basically, I don't even want to meet them.

Nina PETLYANOVA
Caricature by V.B.

Under the text
On Sunday, November 30, a single picket will be held on Ligovsky Prospekt near house 49, directed against the often dubious activities of the State Construction Supervision and Expertise Service and its head, Alexander Ort.
Let us remind you that the GSNE Service was recently located at this address, but recently moved. “One must think that the situation in Ligovka became so unbearable that Alexander Ivanovich could not stand it and moved with his team to another place,” the organizers of the action sneer.
“Every day in St. Petersburg the environmental situation is deteriorating; there is less and less greenery on the streets and in courtyards; In place of gardens and squares, like mushrooms after radioactive rain, gigantic construction projects are sprouting up without complying with regulations, says a release issued ahead of the action. — Meanwhile, all these urban planning projects undergo many examinations and are supervised by SGSNE employees. As a result of Mr. Orth’s activities, our city will soon literally be unable to breathe!”
As a sign of protest against the bungling of the State Construction Supervision Service, a Sunday picket is organized. Activists of the “Living City” movement and the “Okhtinskaya Arc” coalition, representatives of initiative groups from different districts of the metropolis will come to support the daredevil who dares to stand for several hours in the suffocating atmosphere of the gas-polluted Ligovka. True, they will be forced to put on personal protective equipment - otherwise they will inevitably faint.
The organizers of the event invite all concerned St. Petersburg residents to join their demands: stop the series of “urban planning mistakes”, stop giving the go-ahead to dubious projects, return greenery and clean air to the city.
V.S.

Help "Novaya"
The LEK construction holding is controlled by famous entrepreneurs Andrey Rogachev (founder of Pyaterochka) and Pavel Andreev. According to market participants, they each own 50 percent of the company. The holding operates 88 new facilities with a total area of ​​1 million square meters. meters. The company has a land bank for the construction of another 4 million square meters. meters of housing.

Novaya's dossier
The LEK company submitted the project for the Imperial residential complex for state examination on November 17. A response should be received within 45 days. According to the Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture of St. Petersburg, the maximum height of the project agreed upon by the committee was 69 meters. The Land Use and Development Commission proposes to make the height of buildings in the block where Imperial is being built even smaller in the draft land use zone - 35 meters. According to the Bekar group of companies, the cost of dismantling the buildings could be $1-3 million.