Perlovskoye Cemetery crowds out gardeners

Summer residents were included in the Moscow government's program to increase burial areas. At the request of the Department of Trade and Services, the horticultural non-profit partnership "Collective Garden N4" in the Losinoostrovsky district must vacate its plots, which it received 50 years ago, but was never able to formalize the rights to this land.

Photo: Alexander Vainshtein, Kommersant / buy photo

The city department of trade and services notified Collective Garden N4 that the partnership's land was transferred to the city for free, fixed-term use (the corresponding order was issued by the city property department) and the gardeners must vacate the territory, Anton Babenko, partner of the Padva and Epshtein law office, told Kommersant. representing the interests of Collective Garden N4.

The land for the partnership was allocated in 1966 from the Svetlana sanatorium complex. In 2006, it entered into a two-year lease agreement for the site with the city property department, but the agreement was not registered - the process was stopped by the Moscow department of the Federal Registration Service, as follows from the corresponding notice (Kommersant has a copy). “But this did not make the agreement invalid; it states that it can only be recognized as such in court, therefore the actions of the department violate the rights of the members of the partnership to the land,” says Mr. Babenko. According to him, the partnership is challenging in court the legality of the order to transfer the site to the jurisdiction of the Department of Trade and the decision of the district commission of the prefecture of the North-Eastern District of Moscow to suppress unauthorized construction.

The head of the department of trade and services, Alexey Nemeryuk, notes that the legal proceedings are not over yet, and expects a decision in favor of the city. “The land that the partnership now occupies was allocated for cultivating a garden, any construction on it was prohibited, and accordingly the buildings (79 pieces) are illegal,” says the head of the department of trade and services. According to him, there are no grounds for the demands put forward by the partnership. “The land is owned by the city. The lease agreement was declared void immediately after its conclusion,” clarifies Alexey Nemeryuk.

The plots of the “Collective Garden N4” (their total area is 3 hectares) are located within the boundaries of the water protection zone of the Dzhamgarovsky pond (formed on the Ichka River in the Losinoostrovsky district of Moscow). Adjacent to the pond on the north side is the Perlovskoye cemetery, which was founded in 1932 (area - 19 hectares) by the Jewish community from Perkhushkovo. In 1978, it was added to Moscow cemeteries and was soon closed, and is now used only for family burials. Anton Babenko says that the partnership obtained an order from the interdistrict environmental prosecutor's office to the State Unitary Enterprise "Ritual" (which manages the capital's cemeteries) about the impossibility of using land in the water protection zone for burials. According to Alexey Nemeryuk, the city intends to use no more than 1 hectare of territory for burials, which is currently occupied by the “Collective Garden N4”. “The land adjacent to the pond will be landscaped. About 1 hectare remains directly for burials, taking into account the path system,” explains the official.

The expansion of the Perlovskoye cemetery is part of the city program to increase the territory for burial. Thus, according to Alexey Nemeryuk, the Perepechinskoye cemetery (25 hectares), Vostryakovskoye (5.8 hectares), Troekurovskoye (4.39 hectares), Shcherbinskoye (0.5 hectares), Domodedovskoye (60 hectares), Butovskoye (7. 23 hectares) and the reconstruction of the Novodevichy cemetery complex (repair) is being prepared. Butovskoye and Shcherbinskoye cemeteries are increasing again. The first stage of expansion took place in 2014. Expenses for increasing the territory of the listed cemeteries in 2014-2015 amount to 880 million rubles.

It is really difficult to register land in a nature conservation zone, says Mikhail Kyurdzhev, partner at the A2 law office. But in the case of Collective Garden N4, the lack of public hearings regarding the change in the category of land may serve as a basis for challenging the actions of officials. “The plots were allocated for gardens, but now it turns out that this is land for cemeteries. Its purpose has been changed, and such a decision is made through public hearings,” emphasizes Mr. Kyurdzhev.

Ekaterina Gerashchenko

Don't get under the skin of summer residents