Translated material
Tactical Khitrovka
Sergei Sobyanin is not ready for a radical revision of the general plan of Moscow
The new mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, continues to adjust urban planning plans that were outlined under Yuri Luzhkov. Mr. Sobyanin has not yet decided to make significant changes to the scandalous master plan for the development of the capital until 2025 , but he has quite consistently refused to implement the most controversial projects that Moscow officials planned under the old boss. At yesterday's meeting of the mayor's town planning council, he once again criticized the current project for the construction of the Moscow City business complex, announced the creation of a town planning and land commission under the mayor, and also made a number of unexpected economic and personnel decisions, replacing the head of the Moscow Heritage Committee and canceling construction the business center on Khitrovskaya Square, criticized by defenders of old Moscow.Judging by the frequency with which the new mayor of Moscow criticizes the Moscow City construction project, fulfilling President Dmitry Medvedev’s order to transform the capital from a city unsuitable for a comfortable life into a global financial center is gradually becoming one of the top priorities for Moscow officials. Along with, of course, solving the transport problem. It was precisely the lack of normal transport infrastructure on the territory of Moscow City - an area that, in theory, should become the material base for the future financial center and the calling card of Russia for Western investors - that Sergei Sobyanin pointed out yesterday, not ruling out that planning work will undergo significant adjustments.
Let us remember that the new mayor immediately disliked one of the most ambitious projects in Moscow in recent years and called Moscow City an “urban planning mistake.” At the end of October, at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev on road construction issues, Mr. Sobyanin expressed bewilderment that the Moscow City complex, designed for 300 thousand jobs, was being built with parking for only 30 thousand cars. “You can imagine that these 300 thousand jobs - and these are mainly offices - may be filled with not 30 thousand cars, but 500-600 thousand. That is, we will cause an instant collapse in the city center,” - Mr. Sobyanin reported to the President. Nevertheless, the mayor of Moscow yesterday was forced to admit the obvious: “The facility is at a fairly advanced stage of construction.” Therefore, changes to “some architectural and planning solutions related to the increase in parking spaces” will be carried out as the construction of Moscow City progresses.
Chairman of the Moscow City Duma Commission on Perspective Development and Urban Planning, Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov, notes that the problem of building a business center was not the main one at the meeting of the mayor with members of the public council. For the capital’s mayor, the deputy noted in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, it was more important to discuss strategic issues of implementing the scandalous general plan. “Sobyanin called on the council members to complete the development of land use and development rules by March 1 next year,” Mr. Moskvin-Tarkhanov said. At the same time, the city's mayor found that the existing coordination institutions in the capital's management system were not enough - he decided to create a city planning and land commission to implement these rules.
However, there were some surprises. As Mr. Moskvin-Tarkhanov noted in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, right during the council meeting, Mr. Sobyanin announced the decision to change the leadership of the Moscow Heritage Committee - the former head of the federal " Rosokhrankultury" Alexander Kibovsky.
The new mayor of Moscow does not change the policy of abandoning the most controversial construction projects - Mr. Sobyanin announced yesterday that the project to build a business center on Khitrovskaya Square in the center of Moscow will not be implemented. The Don-Stroy company planned to build an eight-story office center with parking for 250 cars on the site of the Electromechanical College. This project at one time caused a storm of indignation among defenders of the historical appearance of Moscow. 12 thousand signatures were collected against the construction, but in December 2009, the demolition of the college building began. Now, according to Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov, “a parking lot will be built under Khitrovskaya Square, and a lawn will be planted on top.”
It is noteworthy that this tactical step by the mayor secured him the support of the opposition metropolitan public. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, Rustam Rakhmatullin, coordinator of the Arkhnadzor movement, expressed satisfaction that the new mayor has realized one of their most important demands. Refusal of construction on Khitrovka, apparently, will allow Mr. Sobyanin to deflect critical arrows against the general plan. In addition, the mayor himself immediately confirmed that this document could be revised; the new mayor ordered that it be supplemented taking into account the need to develop a network of healthcare institutions in Moscow.
All this, Mr. Moskvin-Tarkhanov believes, allows us to assert that the scandalous general plan of Moscow will not be radically revised. “The document is quite flexible, so it needs to be implemented. In any case, in six years it will have to be updated again, but for now we can deal with the most pressing problems,” said the head of the Moscow City Duma Commission on Long-Term Development and Urban Planning.
The leader of the Yabloko party and the main fighter against the general plan of Moscow, Sergei Mitrokhin, categorically disagrees with this statement. The politician is very dissatisfied that the new mayor does not dare to radically change the general plan, which, as he claims, was created “not for ordinary Muscovites, but for generating super-profits.” “The General Plan should become Sobyanin’s document, not Luzhkov’s. But so far I don’t see the new mayor’s determination to seriously change anything,” Mr. Mitrokhin said in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent. In his opinion, “it is necessary to reconsider the philosophy of urban planning policy in the city and not be limited to targeted solutions that do not solve the main problems of the capital.”