Moscow City Court returned to Muscovites the courtyard captured for the renovation

Residents of the Ostankino district have returned to themselves the courtyard territory seized by the mayor's office with the adjoining public garden.

Lyudmila Butuzova

The decision of the Tverskoy District Court of 16.01.2020 (judge A.V. Stekliev), who did not find anything illegal in the seizure and compaction, by the Appeal ruling of the Moscow City Court canceled. The claim of residents to the Department of City Property and the State Enterprise of the City of Moscow "Civil Construction Management" for invalidating the agreement with the developer on the free use of the land plot located at ul. Zander, 7.

The participants in the defense of the park, who for several years did not allow it to be turned into a construction site, rejoice.

“The court for once made a legal decision, satisfying the interests of PEOPLE, not the state-commercial system”, - Municipal Deputy Sergey Tsukasov, one of the organizers of the protests, who himself fiercely fought “on the barricades” against illegal development, shared his opinion with NI. - This is really an amazing event: the courts often indulge in unclean interests and arbitrariness of the authorities. But this time our collective energy, strength and power of the protest broke through the seemingly iron wall. Many thanks to the resident of the region, Igor Ivanovich Pozdnyakov, who seems to be living not quite close to the square, but ardently took up the legal support of the process, He defended in court not only the claims of the plaintiffs - the owners of the apartments of the house No. 7 on Tsander street, but also the rights of all residents of the microdistrict to a favorable living environment. We have all together proved that the solidarity and perseverance of citizens can lead to real results.

The history of confrontation has long roots. Ten years ago, the former mayor Yuri Luzhkov laid eyes on the square and the common courtyard of two houses - No. 7 on Tsander Street and No. 9, Building 2 on Korolev Street. Still would! A cozy place, the pride of local residents: a lot of greenery, a large playground, many parking spaces, a beautiful view of the Ostankino tower from the windows. Here, against the will of the residents, the ex-mayor was planning commercial development. Luzhkov did not succeed in breaking people - he himself was soon removed. Sobyanin, who intervened, positioned himself as an opponent of infill development. True, there were rumors that there would still be a house in the park, but a municipal one. They were not confirmed. But when the renovation came to Moscow, to Ostankino it got hot. There are enough five-story buildings in the district - 43 houses are registered as participants in the program. There is a problem with the launch sites - they seem to exist, but the residents do not like it, or the city hall. There was no doubt that sooner or later they would get to the square, which was grimy with greedy bureaucratic eyes.

In order to prevent this danger, in 2017, the public movement Our Ostankino was organized in the district, one of the points of the program was to prevent the development of the park.

“All our municipal deputies were elected from this movement, and therefore the composition of the Council is like this - completely oppositionists, not a single supporter of the construction bacchanalia, not a single United Russia member”, - Oleg Sulakadze, a labor veteran, honored trainer of the RSFSR, leader of the initiative group of residents of the Ostankino region, told NI. - When there is a center of resistance, people already behave differently. They communicate, track undesirable development plans for us, and not 15-20 activists, but whole houses go out to the action. An object lesson to the city fathers: we live here and will live here, we will fight, regardless of the “political weather” and the interests of renovators. It makes no sense to start a civil war for the sake of some kind of builder.

The culmination came in February 2019 - the Moscow government quietly issued a land plot on ul. Zander D. 7 under the launch pad. A week later, the residents were convinced that it was starting. In the morning, as soon as the car owners left for work, heavy equipment arrived. Concrete blocks were placed on parking lots, a garden was fenced ostensibly for repair work on the heating main, and several trees were briskly filled up. No logging tickets, no documents, no information board... Everyone who was at home poured out onto the street and stopped this case. They called the manipulator, pulled the blocks aside.

“The round-the-clock duty for guarding the square has begun”, - says Sergey Tsukasov. - Residents came out in turn, deputies and activists from all over Moscow joined in. We did not know when the assault would take place, but that they would decide on a forceful seizure - it was felt in many ways. We were morally ready for it.

The assault began on March 5. An unforgettable day for everyone. OMON, police, paddy wagons - Zander Street did not know such a thing before. Like the visit of the prefect with a retinue of deputies and supporters, but no, not in the thick of things. According to Sergei Tsukasov, the visitors watched from the hiding place - they waited for the police to screw up the loudest and the second act of the Marlezon ballet would begin.

It began when in the most barbaric way the police pushed into the paddy wagon the municipal deputy of the Sviblovo district Elena Novikova, the head of the Ostankino municipal district Sergei Tsukasov and one of the local activists.

As soon as the detention took place, the residents of the neighboring five-story buildings with posters "We are for renovation" appeared on the stage and began waving them towards the snowdrift on which the prefect and his retinue nestled. Renovation of the “five-story building” was wanted in that very square, for which at that moment activists and residents of the neighboring house were fighting with riot police and police.

The prefect was photographed with the renovation masses and merged. The masses also disappeared, later it turns out that most of them were extras from other areas. But there were also their own "five-story", who either did not understand what was happening here, or had such a character in which you always want the neighbor's cow died. The main thing is to send them a question in time: "Do you want you to build a house with your neighbors in the park?" Of course, there were people who thanked for the house, and for the fact that the neighbors in the park, especially. Some residents frankly told how they were recruited: “They come to us from the prefecture and offer to vote for the construction in the neighbors' yard. They act like provocateurs: right now, close by, or in 2038 you’ll go somewhere unknown. The owners of the yard and the square and the residents of the district generally do not need to ask. The main thing is that we agree. "Those" who were not asked "stood on the barricades until the morning and forced the lovers of the renovation freebie to retreat. Then, for another year, there were round-the-clock shifts in the square on Tsander, many alarming events, thousands of signatures, rallies, pickets, petitions almost to the Pope, and finally a victory in the Moscow City Court.

Cases of bygone days might not have been remembered, but, according to Oleg Sulakadze, as an example of what is happening in the square on Zander, only the blind can not see the most severe antagonistic crisis of the authoritarian style of the city leadership with the vital interests of citizens, shameful attempts to push through their selfish interests under the cover of renovation, not only spitting on the opinion of residents, but, moreover, to do it under the guise of their own will.

- Here's to any unbiased person when I tell you that in the park at a distance of 15 meters from the nine-story building they planned to build a 4-section 22-storey building with 240 apartments, and destroy the last landscaped area in the microdistrict, leave people without parking lots and social infrastructure, the reaction is the same - "It can't be," says Oleg Georgievich. - Once the prefect of the North-Eastern Administrative District Belyaev arrived, looked around, saw a square: “Where do such projects come from?” The regional newspaper published his words. We were even relieved from our hearts: several thousand votes against the construction site were gathered — we were finally heard. But the prefecture, the government do not decide anything, management comes from the "golden tent". They gave the order: “We must build!” - the prefect immediately changed his shoes, and now we have him with riot police, seizure, people appear from nowhere: we want a renovation!”

I read with envy about Switzerland, where the renovation of the district in Bern is carried out through a district referendum. The President of France, in connection with the dissatisfaction of residents with construction policies, travels to the hinterland, takes part in a meeting of the municipality, and then holds a meeting with representatives of 600 municipalities in order to know first-hand what people are dissatisfied with, to consult with them what to do. In many European countries, for the sake of convenience and improving the comfort of living, they refuse from multi-storey construction in general. What about us? The marauders are tearing and taking away the last pieces of Moscow land, cynically reveling in their omnipotence and impunity. They do not reckon with people, they destroy other people's property, they redraw the land in their favor. The most disgusting thing is that the Moscow government is lobbying for all these affairs and affairs.

The customer for the construction at our Zander is the State-owned enterprise of the city under the leadership of the famous lover of the Moscow land Damir Gazizov. In contractors there is a certain firm with an authorized capital of 10 thousand rubles and 8 employees. Could she get a bank loan of hundreds of millions of rubles for the construction of a huge house? Of course not. But it is easy to get this money for "renovation" from the Moscow budget, but only on one condition - powerful administrative support. The firm had it. You don't need to bother with the land at all - they will build where Gazizov liked. Legal aspects - on the sidelines, although the planned construction captures not only the general and as if “no man's” square, but also part of the land plot of house 7, owned by residents. With what joy do you climb there ?

But with this! Everyone remembers: the Moscow Property Department was given money for surveying a few years ago. The officials did nothing, they just drew maps as they saw fit. That is, for most Soviet-built houses with huge courtyards and playgrounds, the land was cut off along the bay. And now, like the old documents are lost, it is impossible to restore them, so what was yours became ours. It is difficult, almost impossible, to confirm the rights to land to apartment buildings, who have tried - there are so many obstacles and deceptions that it is easier to fly into space. Because it is money, big money. I will give you the order of prices for Moscow land using the example of a high-rise building in which I myself live. I also have it in Ostankino, and the land under the house as a result of interleaving was cut to the very bottom. So, even the cadastral price of this trim is 1 billion 200 million rubles. Now imagine a courtyard on Zander with a huge playground, green area and parking lots - the price is not one or two billion. And the renovators wanted to swallow this piece for free, at the same time destroying the life of the district and the favorable environment that people created with their own hands. Moscow City Court cracked off appetites. But, firstly, the residents managed to get archival documents, confirm the land rights with iron evidence. At the level of the district court of us with the same documents in a second ride. It is surprising that the Moscow City Court heard the arguments and made a fair decision. But the square remained in limbo. We, of course, will fight for him, this is the life of our region, its green lungs. But after all, jaws click on that side too... The mayor's office, I think, is not going to put a fat point in this story and will not let people live in peace.

It seems so. How much Ostankino didn’t demand clarity about a comprehensive solution to the problems of renovation in the area, how many didn’t ask not to "tout" infill development, but to provide planning projects for the entire territory and involve deputies and residents in their development and discussion, the mayor's office does not hear this. During the epidemic, people were deprived of the last opportunity to speak out - public hearings were replaced by discussion of projects on the Internet.

- The results of voting on the "Active Citizen" are amazing, - Sergey Tsukasov is indignant. - What is presented by the planners is an attempt to concrete and three-fold compact the entire area. The lives of tens of thousands of people will become worse. Residents left an incredible number of comments and demands to humanize the project, reduce the altitude, revise the compaction parameters, and not encroach on green areas. A week later, the results were published: we, it turns out, are all in favor, not a single vote against, comments for consideration have not been accepted. How can this be in a protest area? Who Needs Rigging? vote? Ahead is a court to cancel fake hearings and on the entire territory planning project. We hope for a fair decision.

The Moscow City Court has already taken our side in a dispute with the authorities, why not repeat the "Zander Effect"? Of course, this is not yet a victory "in the war": developers may try to seize land for state needs, arrange some kind of "renovation" of a lower number of storeys in the park. But this is definitely a victory in a major battle. We got time for maneuvers and continue to act with the same intensity of the struggle that many experienced. Because we have the right! We are citizens of our country, and not a meek population, as the destroyers of Moscow used to think.