Urban planning and land powers are being taken away from Ulyanovsk “for inability”

The government of the Ulyanovsk region is taking the powers of the regional center in the field of land allocation and urban planning to the regional level. The reason cited was a large number of errors and violations in the allocation of land and issuance of construction permits, which were allowed in Ulyanovsk.

The head of Ulyanovsk, Marina Bespalova, believes that the issue of transfer of powers still requires discussion
Photo: http://ugd.ru

On Thursday, on behalf of the governor of the Ulyanovsk region, Sergei Morozov, the responsible persons were to prepare proposals for the transfer of powers in the field of architecture and land use to the regional level. The governor announced the need to accelerate work in this direction at a staff meeting, speaking about errors and violations in the Ulyanovsk administration when allocating land plots and issuing construction permits. “I remind you that we must change the legislation of the Ulyanovsk region in order to take away the powers that municipalities cannot cope with. They don't know how to distribute land. They do not know how to issue construction permits and generally support urban planning issues. And if they don’t know how, then there is no need to leave them these powers,” Mr. Morozov emphasized.

Let us recall that in 2006, Ulyanovsk’s regional law, also under the pretext of a large number of violations, already took away the right to dispose of its land plots with an area of more than two hundred square meters (the opposition and business representatives were dissatisfied with the decision, pointing to an increase in corruption and a lengthening of the approval distance), but already in In 2010, this right was returned.

As Sergei Mishin, director of the regional department of property and land relations, explained to Kommersant, “it is impossible to completely transfer powers over land, since the management of land plots is determined at the federal level,” “but at the municipal level in the management of land resources, there is an error upon error,” and, “To avoid this, a new land management concept has been developed.” Within its framework, a regional state government institution “Regional Land and Property Information Center” has already been created (established at the end of August this year), “which will interact with municipalities in the field of land relations.” According to Mr. Mishin, “at the first stage, the center will prepare standard regulations for the provision of municipal services for the provision of land plots, standard contracts and regulations for the entire region,” and “the terms for the provision of plots will be significantly lower than today in municipalities.” At the next stage, the center will be “technically and legally correct for all municipalities to prepare all draft regulations for the allocation of land, fully monitoring the entire process of providing the site.” Mr. Mishin notes that “this is especially important” due to the fact that municipalities do not have enough competent specialists. “But the final decision with the right to sign resolutions still remains with the head of the municipality,” noted the director of the department. He also explained that, probably, a separate department for urban planning will be created in the regional government, to which the powers of municipalities will be transferred. “We will redistribute powers in the urban planning sphere, but which ones to take and which ones to leave to municipalities will still be discussed in working groups with the participation of the heads of municipalities,” added Tatyana Tarasova, adviser to the governor on urban planning issues. According to her, it is assumed that the approval of general plans, development rules, urban plans for land plots and urban planning standards will move to the regional level. It is still unknown whether the issuance of construction permits will be left to the municipality or will also be taken to the regional level. In any case, officials admit, changes in regional legislation will be required. It is expected that the transfer of powers will take place on January 1, 2015. In fact, the governor’s order is already being implemented - on Thursday, the draft of the new general plan for Ulyanovsk until 2035 was already discussed not at the city, but at the regional city council.

However, the regional legislative assembly does not yet know how permissible it is to take away the city’s powers in the field of urban planning. “The topic is problematic, there are questions, because according to the current legislation, the master plan and everything connected with it, construction permits are the powers of the local government,” noted the head of the construction committee of the regional legislative assembly, Alsou Sadretdinova. At the same time, she believes that the current situation in Ulyanovsk is “abnormal,” “and this monster, in which the architecture committee and the property management committee are merged together, is completely uncontrollable.” “The city committee of architecture should be a separate independent full-fledged body - with a chief architect, with powers and a full-fledged staff. I think they will come back to this anyway,” the deputy noted.

The Ulyanovsk City Duma is not yet concerned about the possible removal of powers. “This issue was not discussed either in the committee or at the City Duma meeting, I am not ready to comment yet,” Alimzhan Abubekyarov, deputy chairman of the City Duma Committee on Land Use and Urban Planning, told Kommersant. However, City Duma deputy Grigory Kalenov, while acknowledging the poor performance of city services, fears that “excessive centralization could ultimately cause harm.”

At the same time, the head of Ulyanovsk, Marina Bespalova, does not confirm the City Duma’s readiness to unconditionally transfer the powers of the city: “We will still bring it up for discussion. And if this leads to an improvement in the quality of services and a reduction in terms, then we will agree with the governor. If it’s not very constructive and doesn’t fit into the existing regulations, then I think the governor will agree with us.”

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk

The regional government lands in the city