"Dear builders, go out!": Residents try to expel Center-Invest from Berezovaya Alley

Reporting by Novye Izvestia from this urban planning conflict.

Julia Suntsova

During the struggle with the developer, residents have identified many violations at the construction site. According to one of them, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office on October 22 opened a process in the Moscow Arbitration Court - on invalidating the lease agreement for the site with the application of the consequences of an invalid transaction and taking interim measures in the form of suspension of work.

Novye Izvestia has already written how the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dorogomilovo, based on the materials of the inspection of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, opened a criminal case on the fact of using a forged document to legalize the construction of "Festival Park-2" on ul. Festivalnaya, 15, being built with the involvement of equity holders. According to a source of "NI", the basis of the charges in the criminal case under Part 5 of Article 327 (production and circulation of forged documents) can be based on criminal actions of both the officials of the developer and the employees of Mosgosstroynadzor.

At the construction site itself, all these trials did not seem to be reflected at all. On the contrary, after the threatening statements by the prosecutor's office about the initiation of cases, the developer became even more aggressive, and the pace of construction approached shock.

An area of 3.45 hectares next to Berezovaya Alley, where five-story buildings were demolished, is today fenced. A pit has already been dug inside, construction equipment is working, there are cabins for workers. However, the developer periodically raids the adjacent land. It breaks the natural complex, then it leads its equipment along inter-quarter passages without the approval of the road inspection, then it climbs into playgrounds, then it turns pedestrian and walking areas into bumps ...

October 21 in this sense has become another hectic day for the residents of the district. The day before the start of the arbitration court challenging the lease agreement, the Center-Invest excavator arrived to demolish the adjacent playground. The residents did not see any documents for the work. Law enforcement agencies are in no hurry to side with the defenders of Berezovaya Alley.

Special correspondent "NI" talked with residents in the center of this urban planning conflict.

On both sides of the stick-in fence, two ranks lined up - mercenary private security officers against the inhabitants.

- Dear residents, do not touch the property of the developer!

- Dear inhabitants, get out of our site! - the activists calmly answered people in helmets.

The builders managed to unload the timber and concrete blocks on the site, remove the soil and start the excavator. The residents did not see any documents for the work. A few moments later, a crowd of people broke through the fence to the site and were already standing under the excavator bucket. After almost two hours of standing, the engine had to be turned off. Another day the site was snatched from the clutches of the builders.

“The blocks have disappeared, the ground has returned, the hedges have been blown away by the wind, justice has been restored,” the activists comment.

The neighboring playground was less fortunate - the developer took it in a matter of hours with almost no resistance. Now mothers with strollers and children, leaving the entrance, immediately run into concrete-iron blocks.

The land was transferred to the developer without bidding. The illegality of the land lease agreement was confirmed on August 27 by the Moscow prosecutor's office. The architectural and urban planning decision, approved by the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction, is illegal. The building permit was obtained illegally - with forged documents, which was confirmed by the same Moscow prosecutor's office on May 26 - in this regard, in fact, a criminal case was initiated. Illegally issued a felling ticket, - the residents immediately and in chorus list the violations discovered by the developer.

According to the initial project developed by the "Institute of the General Plan of Moscow" and approved by the draft Resolution of Moscow No. 494, there should be three high-rise buildings, a kindergarten and a fitness center. Where is it all? The developer has agreed with everyone and is putting in eight towers with a height of 24-37 floors. All norms for density, construction coefficient, insolation have been violated, they have been changed downward, but they do not comply either. Only one house, as the authorities themselves said, is being relocated for renovation - and that one has been moved in 2026 and is not officially included in the list of launch sites. There were more than 300 people at the land surveying hearings. The majority spoke out against the land surveying project, but the prefecture, represented by the first deputy Nikitin, approved it. Recently, in the documents we obtained, among this stone jungle, we discovered a paradise island - two cottages, two three-story houses and a fitness club for 37 people (what is this anyway?) These small houses and a sports club for the elite - according to our assumptions, are living things the embodiment of the classic rollback for everything that was allowed here to be done with our microdistrict, - says Alexey Vlasov, a former architect of the district.

In recent months, residents feel themselves in a state of siege.

- We are forced to restructure all our personal and life plans. We are on duty day and night so that we are not completely occupied. You have to go to the Prosecutor's Office and other authorities as to work, otherwise nothing moves, - says Lyubov Korotkova.

Three chat rooms today promptly inform about everything that happens in this green zone and on the construction site of the Festival Park. 900 people - in the main chat, 200 people - in the second chat for the most active, 70 people - the "gold reserve" - those who are ready to get up in live chains at least during the day, even at night, she adds.

- The developer bought a logging ticket for 5.9 million rubles - this is the compensation cost, as, in the opinion of the mayor's office, there are 238 trees and 500 shrubs on Berezovaya Alley, interfering with the laying of communications. 307 trees in the very spot of the building are free of charge. But it is impossible to lay new communications in this place - this is a natural area - a public garden above the underground Aksininsky stream, and it has been assigned a second regime for regulating urban planning activities. Nevertheless, communications are creeping out of the building spot into a natural complex in violation of the laws of the city of Moscow. We turned to the Environmental Prosecutor's Office, the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office, and the Golovinsky Prosecutor's Office. “This is not the laying of new communications, but the reconstruction of old ones. We took a look, ”the officials answer without a twinge of conscience, says Lyubov.

Some of Center-Invest's networks will also touch the adjoining territory.

- We ask where the documents are. The developer's representatives answer us, they say, we'll show the police, but not you. The police arrive, they shove her some muddy printouts from Yandex-maps, and they look for the sake of appearance, and leave satisfied. Well, with such success, I can print and show something from Yandex-maps, - Pavel Selivanov is indignant , through whose yard the developer plans to pull communications.

Land plot with reference point Festivalnaya vl. 15 - like a "black hole" in which all Russian law enforcement is being demagnetized, activists are switching to metaphors.

Special correspondent "NI" was convinced of this personally. Firstly, there are a lot of silent and bored "Cerberus" around the construction site. There are several types of them.

Along the perimeter of the construction site, after 15 meters from each other, chopovtsy in uniform vests and helmets are freezing. “No comment, no comment,” they say quickly, very similar to the spell “mind me, mind me,” and turn away from everyone who tries to speak with them in human language.

Further, together with the residents, we approach two men in civilian clothes standing under the birches - the defenders of the alley have already called them "ears in the shade of birches." It is obvious that Birch Alley is no less sacred for them than for the inhabitants. Every single day, at 8 am they come here and check in at the checkpoint-shnoy booth, and in the evening they check in there. They stand under the birches for 12 hours and are silent.

- Can I talk to you? Who do you represent? What are your functions? We ask. Silent men scatter in different directions.

- Why don't you want to talk to us? Are you shy?

“I’m ashamed,” the fleeing man confesses to the "NI" - Call and we'll talk.

- What number?

- 02, - he says and completely disappears into the shade of birches.

Residents know one more silent guy as "Nikita". On different days, depending on his mood, he calls himself either a representative of the prefecture, or a conflict expert from Center-Invest.

He staunchly ignored all the calls of the special correspondent "NI" to talk, stubbornly did not say a word, did not move a centimeter, and with a gaze in his eyes tried to create magic with the crowd surrounding him. Indeed, it is scary ... scary to hire a developer for such work every day.

But now a real, not a mythical policeman is heading to the checkpoint. With a badge, shoulder straps and in uniform.

- Are you going to this construction site, to Center-Invest? - we ask him with the activists.

“Yes, to this construction site,” the policeman replies.

- For what reason, on whose call? Whom to protect?

Hearing questions, and the policeman also loses his speech, adds a step and dissolves on the horizon.

- The area is designed for 50 thousand inhabitants. Hospitals and kindergartens are overwhelmed. We used to be proud of our clinic, it was the most progressive medical center in the area. But the leadership changed, more than 50% of the doctors left. The developer does not care about the new infrastructure, and the old one is crumbling before our eyes. The capacity of the polyclinic is already overcrowded, and this is not even the first phase of the Festival-Park. It is scary to imagine what will happen when the second stage is handed over, because this is at least 10% more over the population of the district, - say the activists.

- Five kindergartens in the neighborhood. There are already bunk beds there. We, mothers, are unable to get seats, and this is still the first stage of the Festival-Park has not arrived. We tried to voice the problem through the municipal deputy. The lack of seats is acknowledged. Explain verbally: “Queues”. And when you write complaints, the answers come: "There are places." Some two parallel realities. But my child is still without a place in the garden, - says Elena Abaeva.

- Intra-quarter passages are being transferred to the citywide road network. There will be traffic jams. There will be gas pollution. There will be workload. The subway is already like in China - you can't go in during rush hours. The developer advertises ecology and the restored port of the River Station. But it is already thick there, as in Rome. To ride a bike, you have to get off and walk. There are already so many people that there will be more to breathe.

- The pedestrian infrastructure has been destroyed. Children from two schools, including primary grades, will go to school along highways. The developer did not deign to make pedestrian crossings, the approaches to schools also became unsafe. They poured some semblance of footpaths - this is how children in strollers wake up when their parents drag them along these paths. There is no normal lighting either. A wooden deck has been laid at the construction site itself. He's rotten. Last week, a crying woman was pulled out of it. In short, the infrastructure is something that Center-Invest is not deeply interested in, ”says Elena Nemtsova.

- They are destroying our alley. I spent all my childhood on it. I rode a bicycle and roller-skated. I have a three year old son. All he will see until 2026 is mud, heavy equipment and trees being cut down. Instead of childhood - life at a construction site. Contractors are not the best, to put it mildly. Work begins at 7 am. The police do not react to these violations. And how many accidents there were: the construction crane fell, and something caught fire, smoke, and the water burst. It seems that nobody bothered about hydrology at all. In the design documentation, there is not a word about the underground stream. They constantly have water in the pit, they pump it out all the time. In the unsubscriptions - everything is sewn-closed: “There are no problems with hydrology”, - says Sergey Nekrasov.

Defenders of Berezovaya Alley launched a large-scale anti-advertising campaign for potential equity holders of Festival Park.

Fencing tapes, leaflets on birches, stencils on the asphalt, author's stamps on information boards, “street art” on the hedges of a construction site - everything shouts from everywhere: “Criminals!”, “On trial!”, “Here they violate the rights and the law - 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "," Where is the garden? ", " Festival Park-2: deception, criminal case, lawsuit from the prosecutor's office ", " Save the Birch Alley! ". And "in the bushes" - a gazelle, hung with detailed explanations why it is not worth buying an apartment in the residential complexes "Center-Invest".

- Shareholders come. Well, we conduct detailed excursions, explaining why it is dangerous to buy housing here. We tell you that the developer does not use escrow accounts, that buyers' money is not protected. We explain that we are challenging the lease agreement and the building permit in court, and we are trying to stop this inhuman construction. We understand that no one, except ourselves, will help us...