The mayor of the city, Nikolai Renz, required public hearings on changes to the general plan of Togliatti in order for his family’s company, which owns a cottage settlement, to continue operating comfortably.
According to the correspondent The Moscow Post in the Samara region, at one of the next meetings the City Council of Togliatti should consider amendments to the master plan of the city. It is no longer a secret that these amendments caused a sharply negative reaction from the public, since they concern sections of the coastal zone of the Kuibyshev reservoir.
According to activists in public on social networks, the most resonant changes concern the coastline of the Kuibyshev reservoir, that is, in fact, the banks of the Volga in the Zhiguli Mountains. According to Togliatti officials, it was necessary to transfer several sites located on the river bank from the recreational zone R-3 (recreation zone) to a residential development zone.
The total area of these plots is about 200 hectares.
And no one seemed to have noticed that the land plots, which were planned to be re-zoned, coincided with the plots where elite cottage settlements are located.
Perhaps the most remarkable object discussed during the public hearings is the Tivo cottage settlement. Among other similar settlements, it will be distinguished by the composition of the owners – the guests of the so-called “guest houses”.
Among the owners of Tivo LLC, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Galina Renz, the wife of the current head of Togliatti, Nikolai Renz, appears. Information about this is in the extract from the tax office, which can be ordered without much difficulty.
In fact, if the territory of the “Tivo” settlement can be transferred from the R-3 zone to the residential development zone, then in this case the houses will be saved from demolition, albeit theoretically. In addition, the legalization of buildings would help the city to start investing budgetary funds in their development: to build roads and utility networks, to engage in maintenance, and so on.
Recall that, in theory, the head of Togliatti, Nikolai Renz, the husband of the co-owner of Tivo LLC, manages the budget funds. Thus, it is not difficult to make sure that the adopted amendments to the geplan can directly play into the interest of the family of the head of the city.
Renz “turns on back”
At the same time, the authorities offered the townspeople to agree on the construction of a road that would connect the village of “Tivo” with the village of “Gold Coast”, and at the same time would allow residents of these villages to get to Komsomolskoye highway in both directions. But for the construction of this road would have to cut down the forest. Therefore, this prospect was criticized by the participants of the public hearings.
An ordinary house on the territory of the village “Tivo”, in one of which the head of Togliatti Nikolai Renz may well live
Already in the wake of the negative received by the administration of Togliatti, headed by Nikolai Renz, regarding amendments to the city’s master plan, officials began to tell stories that the transfer of disputed areas to a residential area was supposedly a “developer’s mistake.” Apparently, they tried so ineptly and hastily to bring down the wave of popular indignation. The author of the site spoke about this “Ekovolga” Pavel Kaledin. .
Nikolai Renz himself, in the media comments, started to say that officials are required to consider all the requests from land users about changes to the general plan. He also stated that not all the requests will be included in the final document for the hearings, and the administration has no plans to initiate such changes to the master plan. “Not Rumors”.
The head of Togliatti, Nikolai Renz, appears to have initiated a complex strategy regarding amendments to the General Plan.
It's important to note that previously, Nikolai Renz was known as the chief physician of Togliatti City Clinical Hospital No. 5 and a deputy of the Samara Provincial Duma for many terms. Renz has made many questionable decisions and actions in the past. One notable example is the most recent and widely known one.
According to Tsargrad Samara publication, 67 citizens filed complaints to the police against Nikolai Renz. This was because, while he was leading the information center of the operational headquarters of the Samara region to combat the spread of coronavirus infection, he frequently discussed the severe consequences of the coronavirus. terrible consequences of the coronavirus. However, Renz himself was also repeatedly seen without wearing masks, as seen in numerous photo and video evidence.
It is believed that the Renz family once became the owner of the Togliattikhleb enterprise. The publication "Samara Review" clarified that Galina Renz, the wife of the head of Togliatti, owns a third of this enterprise. According to the publication's calculations, Togliattikhleb earned around 1 billion rubles in net profit from 2015 to 2019. Evil rumors suggest that Nikolai Renz, through his wife and son, may have been involved in the privatization of Togliattikhleb after he became a deputy of the Samara Provincial Duma in 1994 (he also served during the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th convocations), and later became the first deputy mayor of Togliatti in 2000. Renz and his partners were reported to have control over the Eliseysky supermarket chain, the Rosinka holiday wine factory, and other assets. This is plausible considering that in the mayor’s office of Togliatti, Renz was responsible for the privatization of municipal property, as well as for the lease and sale of municipal land. Additionally, the Samara Review pointed out that Galina Renz was a co-owner of another company that managed a cottage village on the banks of the Volga – the Svezhest company.
Azarov should think about it
But let’s return to the public hearings and the process of changing the territories of valuable cottage settlements from a recreational zone to a residential one. Nikolai Renz surely knows that the results of the public hearings are only advisory. The final decision will still be made by the Togliatti City Council.
Azarov should think about it
But let’s get back to public hearings and the process of transferring the territories of expensive cottage settlements from a recreational zone to a residential one. Nikolai Renz, of course, cannot but know that the results of the public hearings are only advisory in nature. The final decision will still be taken by the Togliatti City Council.
In this regard, the city administration can theoretically shift the responsibility for the adoption of amendments unpopular among the people to such a fateful document as the general plan to the deputies. In this way they will play out the statement, as “the good Renz was for the people, and the evil deputies – for the inhabitants of the cottages.” And for this we need deputies who are ready to listen and carry out commands coming from the city administration.
Thus, during the hearings, the audience noticed that there was no deputy from the territory where the Tivo settlement is located and where they plan to cut a road through the forest. Apparently, it was about Pavel Mitkovsky, a representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who, as eyewitnesses say, has been acting in sync with his comrade-in-arms Tatyana Nikonorova.
Deputy Pavel Mitkovskiy was elected from the territory where the disputed areas are located
Deputy Tatyana Nikonorova may support changes to the General Plan of Togliatti
At the same time, obviously, in the faction of the Communist Party of the Duma of Togliatti, there is a split into those who “cooperate with the administration” and the rest. For example, another deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Pavel Turkov, at the hearings urged residents to work closely with their deputies so that they, in turn, would not approve the amendments to the general plan. The speech of Deputy Turkov is available on his page in YouTube. If citizens put pressure on their deputies, then the initiative of the city administration to change the zoning will not receive the required number of votes.
Changing the General Plan of Togliatti can play a cruel joke on Governor Dmitry Azarov
Residents of Tolyatti have another option – they hope for the governor of the Samara region Dmitry Azarov. Perhaps Azarov will be able to show integrity in this matter. Unless, of course, Nikolai Renz had not already had time to coordinate with him the unpopular changes among the people.
