Sale of plots of Green Island Park declared illegal

The Arbitration Court of the Omsk Region declared the sale of 3 hectares of land in the Green Island Park by the Omsk City Hall illegal. A plot of land in one of the most picturesque places in the city was sold by officials for 1.1 million rubles. Stroykomplektatsiya LLC, after which most of it was resold to the Moscow MT Group LLC. Officials and developers intend to appeal the court decision to a higher authority.

Yesterday, the Arbitration Court of the Omsk Region continued to consider the claim of the regional prosecutor's office against the Department of Property Relations (DIO) of the Omsk Administration, Stroykomplektatsii LLC and MT Group LLC. The supervisory agency demands that the deal between DIO and Stroykomplektatsiya for the sale of 3 hectares of land in the Green Island Park be terminated as illegal. Prosecutors are also seeking to invalidate the sale of 2/3 of the disputed plot of the Moscow MT Group to Stroykomplektatsiya LLC. The entire plot of park land of 3 hectares, according to the prosecutor’s office, should return to municipal ownership, and the DIO should give Stroykomplektatsiya 1.1 million rubles, the proceeds from the deal. The LLC itself is obliged to return 6.5 million rubles to the MT Group company, paid upon the resale of part of the disputed site. In addition, the prosecutors insisted in the lawsuit on the cancellation of the mayor's order to grant this site into private ownership and demand that the department of the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography for the Omsk Region (Rosreestr) cancel the entries in the register of state registration of property rights of the companies. The deal between officials of the Omsk mayor’s office and Stroykomplektatsiya took place in April last year; in November, the LLC resold 2/3 of the plot to the Moscow company. The statement of claim from prosecutors was submitted to the court on September 13, 2010.

At the first court hearing, officials reported that after the presentation of the regional prosecutor's office, the acting. The mayor of Omsk, Vladimir Potapov, canceled the order of the director of the DIO Yuri Hamburg to provide Stroykomplektatsiya with a plot of land on Green Island (the order was signed on October 15, 2008 - Kommersant). After this, the plaintiff clarified the claim, abandoning the demand to cancel the order of the director of the city department. In November, at the request of prosecutors, the court prohibited the regional department of Rosreestr from taking actions to register rights to the park’s lands. However, at the end of November, the Omsk Town Planning Council approved a sketch for the development of 1/3 of the disputed site. Stroykomplektatsiya LLC intends to build a year-round water park there worth 500 million rubles.

At yesterday's court hearing, the regional prosecutor's office supported its demands. Its representative Sergei Tretyakov stated that the disputed area is a park area, therefore it belongs to public lands and is not subject to privatization. In his opinion, officials also violated the procedure by not publishing information about the planned sale in advance.

DIO officials did not agree with the claim. First Deputy Director of the Department Vadim Merenkov, who was present at the meeting, explained that the disputed land plot does not belong to public lands. “These are recreational areas, lands of populated areas. According to the cadastral passport of the plot, its type of use is a recreation area,” he explained. The mayor's office, according to its representative, believes that the provision procedure was not violated. However, at the same time, Mr. Merenkov admitted that the city authorities did not make an appropriate notification in the media about the planned sale of the site. “But the absence of publication of the sale is an insignificant condition for canceling the transaction,” the official clarified. Representative of Stroykomplektatsiya and MT Group Yana Matselevich also did not recognize the claim, supporting the position of the DIO.

As a result, judge Oleg Glazkov partially satisfied the prosecutors' demands. Transactions between the Omsk mayor's office, Stroykomplektatsiya LLC and the capital's MT Group for the sale of lands in the Green Island Park were declared illegal. The entire 3-hectare site should return to city ownership, and the companies will receive the funds paid for the transactions. However, the court refused to invalidate the prosecutor's office's request to invalidate the ownership rights of Stroykomplektatsiya LLC and MT Group to the disputed plots; the corresponding entry in the state registration register will not be annulled.

Yesterday, representatives of the DIO and developers told Kommersant that they would appeal the court’s decision.

Anastasia Mitkovskaya, Omsk

The authorities of Omsk do not leave the ground