Date
Author
Наталья ШКУРЕНОК; Санкт-Петербург
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
For the tower to be demolished
Opponents of the construction of a new Gazprom office in St. Petersburg continue protests
On September 1, Okhta Center LLC, the contractors for the construction of Gazprom's new high-rise office in St. Petersburg, which is causing sharp protests from citizens, will hold another public hearing on this tower. The day before, opponents of construction decided to hold another series of street protests.“No” to Gazprom’s criminal ambitions! No to corrupt officials! “No” to the destroyers of St. Petersburg!” -- leaflets with such calls were distributed to townspeople by the organizers of protest pickets throughout the past weekend. On Saturday, on one of the busiest squares in St. Petersburg - Sennaya - members of the public movement in defense of historical St. Petersburg "Living City" held a picket for many hours. And on Sunday, on Vladimirskaya Square, next to the monument to Fyodor Dostoevsky, the youth branch of the Yabloko party distributed leaflets with calls to come to the next public hearing on the construction of the 400-meter Okhta Center in the protected historical zone of the city.
As members of the “Living City” movement said, initially they were going to hold a picket in the Krasnogvardeisky district, where the “tower” is supposed to be built. But for several years now, the administration of this district has, under any pretext, refused to allow citizens to hold pickets or protest rallies against the “construction of the century.” Even if the residents of the area are not trying to gather in an open square or in the middle of the street, but want to hold a rally in the courtyard. Yabloko members were also denied such permission by the administrations of several districts, including Krasnogvardeisky. Only members of the “Left Front” managed to “get” the Krasnogvardeisky district - they held unauthorized single pickets over the weekend against the construction of a “tower” next to the construction site.
Most of the citizens who approached the “Living City” posters had heard about future construction. Some took part in the “March of Dissent,” while others have already signed their electronic signature against the construction of a skyscraper.
“Why not install it somewhere in Kupchino?” - the young couple Andrey and Marina are indignant. (Kupchino is a residential area of St. Petersburg remote from the center). And an elderly teacher from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg State University advised the picketers to make the picture “more terrible”, otherwise, in his opinion, the sparkling “corn” looks too attractive. The young man who took the leaflet from the hands of the picket participants said as he walked: “I am a shareholder of Gazprom, but I don’t want them to build this with my money!”
The main tasks of the picket organizers are to collect electronic signatures on the website and notify citizens about upcoming public hearings. As Yulia Minutina, coordinator of the Living City, said, on September 1, the next public hearings will be held in the business center of the St. Petersburg Karelia Hotel, conducted by Okhta Center LLC. This time, the issue of changing the maximum permissible height of a future building has been presented for discussion: according to the land use and development rules adopted in St. Petersburg, as well as the “Law on the Boundaries and Regimes of Protected Zones,” the maximum permissible height of buildings in this place cannot exceed 100 m True, there is a clause in the law that stipulates the conditions for deviation from these parameters. But the “gas scraper” still does not have the right to deviations, because, as the law says, “in order to deviate from the maximum parameters during the construction of buildings or structures, the developer, owner or legal holder of the land plot must submit an application to the commission on the land plot. In the application, he must prove that the site he owns has unfavorable properties that do not allow the construction of buildings with the parameters provided for by the PZZ.” That is, the management of Okhta Center LLC must come up with such unfavorable properties of the site that would not allow the construction of a building that does not exceed the height regulations established in the city, but would allow the construction of a skyscraper.
In addition, according to the law “On the boundaries of protection zones of cultural heritage sites on the territory of St. Petersburg and the modes of use within the boundaries of these zones,” newly constructed objects should not be visible from open urban spaces. This provision of the law calls into question the construction of even a building 100 m high on this territory. Because according to officially made preliminary measurements, the “tower” will be visible from almost all significant points from the historical center, it will loom on all historical panoramas, even with a 100-meter height. And at 400 m, historical St. Petersburg will literally become an “annex” to the new Gazprom office.
Last year, Okhta Center LLC twice held hearings on the construction of the “tower”. Some - according to the temporary development regulations - took place even before the adoption of the PZZ. And, according to opponents of the project, they went through with obvious violations, since the developers did not provide maximum height parameters, which is categorically required by the Town Planning Code. Moreover, the city prosecutor's office declared these hearings illegal. The next hearings - on the planning and land surveying project - generally turned into a farce: St. Petersburg journalists found out that the participants in these “hearings” were literally ordered by Okhta Center LLC from Lenfilm. That is, paid extras voted for the construction of the “gas scraper”. But from a legal point of view, those hearings were illegal, because the PZZs adopted later abolished the previous legislative framework.
“We recently learned that Okhta Center LLC held a meeting with representatives of various St. Petersburg enterprises,” says Yulia Minutina. “They were given a list of questions that they would have to ask during the hearing on September 1. For example, will there be clinic when the museum opens. That is, questions that have nothing to do with the high-rise regulations. Apparently, they are planning to blurt out the speeches of those who are going to criticize the construction on the merits.”
From a legislative point of view, even if Okhta Center LLC receives permission to deviate from the maximum height parameters, the law “On the boundaries and regimes of protection zones” remains. And according to this law, there is no procedure for obtaining permission to deviate from the approved parameters. True, until now Gazprom has demonstrated an unambiguous determination to bring the project to its logical conclusion. But this does not stop those protesting against the urban planning plans of the gas monopolist: public organizations are calling on citizens to save historical St. Petersburg from the “gas scraper” despite the tacit support of Gazprom from the city and federal authorities.