The courts will decide whether the new General Plan of Kyiv gets approved or not.
The Administrative Court of Appeal is close to making a decision in the case against the Kyiv City State Administration over the new Master Plan for Kyiv. An individual named Igor Gets is trying to prove that the city authorities do not have the right to prepare this document for approval, but it seems likely that the city leadership will win this dispute since the decision of the Kyiv City Council in 2008 was made in accordance with the laws at that time, and no one challenged it in court. If the city wins, it will set a precedent to quickly approve the Chernovetsky-Klitschko General Plan and defeat any opponents who try to appeal it in court afterwards.
As has been made public, KVas of March 7, 2023 scheduled meeting of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in case No. 640/8400/21.
In this case, Igor Gets is demanding that the actions of the Kyiv City State Administration related to the new General Plan of Kyiv be declared illegal, and that officials of the mayor’s office refrain from preparing this document. He is also demanding that the inaction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine be recognized as illegal for not responding to these actions. The defendants in this case are the Kyiv city state administration and the Cabinet of Ministers, respectively.
In July 6, 2022, the District Administrative Court of Kyiv completely rejected Igor Gets's demands. In response, he filed an appeal which will be considered by the administrative court of appeal.OASK, which was liquidated in December last year, completely rejected Igor Gets's demands. — KV) completely refused Igor Gets's demands, and now the appeal will be considered by the administrative court of appeal.
General plan of Kyiv. On the consideration of the case and the decision of the OASK
According to the court decision dated July 6, 2022, Igor Gets wrote to the mayor of Kyiv and the head of the Kyiv City State Administration in January 2021, reporting a violation of the current legislation related to the new General Plan of Kyiv. The court document does not specify the violations, but it can be assumed that he demanded to stop the development of the document because of the current Master Plan. approved decision City Council No. 370/1804 dated March 28, 2002), based on the laws of Ukraine, is not restricted, so the city government cannot create the “second” General Plan of Kyiv. This version of KV is explained by the fact that this argument will be almost the only one in Getz’s claim in the future.
In response to his request, this person got a letter from the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the KSCA. Officials only mentioned that work on the draft General Plan is still happening, and it is being adjusted to changes in legislation in urban planning, construction, and other state standards, rules, etc.
In March 2021, Igor Gets complained about the actions of officials of the Kyiv City State Administration in a written appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine – he pointed out that the officials of the capital’s mayor’s office evaded “implementation of urgent measures”, which he reported in a letter to the mayor of Kyiv.
The Cabinet of Ministers then sent Igor Gets’ appeal to the Ministry of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, the Kyiv City State Administration, and the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (GAI, liquidated. – KV). The citizen was not happy with this reaction and later turned to the OASK with the same claim. In early April 2021, this court initiated the relevant proceedings.
Igor Gets argued that the Kyiv City State Administration did not take immediate actions to stop illegal actions in the development of the General Plan of Kyiv. He also claimed that the Cabinet of Ministers did not address the shortcomings in the work of the executive authority, which is the Kyiv City State Administration, and “avoided directing and coordinating the activities of the indicated local administration to ensure the proper implementation of the powers granted to it in the relevant territory.”
Igor Gets also stated that the Cabinet of Ministers unreasonably passed his appeal to other bodies for consideration. He said that officials did not ask for this, as these state structures, in accordance with the law, “are not empowered to exercise control over the activities of local executive authorities.” All this, according to the plaintiff, violated his right to participate in the management of public affairs, guaranteed to him by the Constitution of Ukraine, and the right to receive such an intangible benefit as “the proper execution of the KSCA and the Cabinet of Ministers of their powers”.
The main argument regarding the illegality of the development of the new General Plan, as Igor Gets pointed out, is that such documents are indefinite, as stated in the Law of Ukraine “On the regulation of urban planning,” which was approved by the Verkhovna Rada in 2011. Therefore, according to the plaintiff, the development of a “new” General Plan of the capital since March 2011 is illegal.
The KSCA disagreed with these claims and stated that the development of the “new” General Plan by the capital city state administration is legal because there is corresponding instruction from the Kyiv City Council, provided for by decision No. 262/262 of September 18, 2008. They argued that such instructions from local governments are a requirement also. Law of Ukraine “On the control of city planning activities“. The Kyiv City State Administration stated that the decision was made in accordance with the existing laws at the time, even before the Verkhovna Rada made the General Plans termless.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine pointed out that the forwarding of Igor Gets’ appeal is legal. They explained that clarifying the legislation on urban development and the development of the general plan is within the powers of the three bodies. According to the Cabinet of Ministers, “claims for recognition of inaction as illegal and the arguments by which the plaintiff substantiates them are not consistent with the provisions of the legislation of Ukraine, are far-fetched, unreasonable and unfounded, and therefore should be left without satisfaction.” .
During the trial, both the lawyers of the capital city state administration and the lawyers of the Cabinet of Ministers argued that the development of a new General Plan of Kyiv does not affect the interests of Igor Gets, as he lives in another city – in Sumy. The plaintiff mentioned that since November 2019 he has been living “in two cities” – in Kyiv and Sumy.
General plan of Kyiv: massacre in the courts // Screenshot by the decision of the UAC of July 6, 2022
In the end, the board of courts of the OASK decided to completely refuse Igor Gets to satisfy his claim. The ministers of Themis indicated that the decision of the Kyiv City Council No. 262/262 of September 18, 2008 “On the development of a new Master Plan for the Development of Kyiv and its Suburban Area until 2025” was adopted in accordance with the requirements of the legislation in force at the time. The OASK noted that the said decision was not canceled by the city council itself, was not declared invalid in court, and therefore is currently in effect. The court decision also mentioned that “for the recognition of inaction as illegal, it is not enough just one fact of improper or untimely performance of mandatory actions.”
Possible consequences
Experts interviewed by HF expressed their concern about this course of events.
So, the capital’s lawyer and human rights activist Oleksandr Dyadyuk believes that the final victory of the Kyiv City State Administration in court in this case can better help the leadership of the capital come to the approval of the new General Plan “Chernovetsky-Klitschko” and defeat opponents if this document is later appealed in court.
“The plaintiff’s reference to the legislation on the perpetuity of the General Plan will not help to appeal against the actions of the Kyiv City State Administration. Oleksandr Dyadyuk suggests that it would be better to challenge the decision of the Kyiv City Council of 2008 on the development of a new General Plan, as the KSCA is only fulfilling this decision formally. He also does not see any prospects in this case and notes that challenging the new General Plan of Kyiv may lead to the Kyiv City Council using the previous court decision to support their actions.KV Alexander Dyadyuk said that.
A similar viewpoint is held by Viktor Gleba, a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Architecture. He is familiar with all the processes related to the development of the new General Plan of Kyiv due to his past roles in city planning and the Kyiv City State Administration.
Viktor Gleba believes that the draft of the new General Plan of Kyiv should be criticized and challenged for various violations in the development process.
Viktor Gleba, formerly deputy chief architect of the Kiev region, criticized the draft of the new General Plan for ignoring legislative norms and rules and for not conducting a public examination. He also mentioned providing extensive comments on the draft Master Plan of Kyiv during his time at the city council of the Kyiv region.
Why the General Plan of Kyiv is a headache for the people of Kiev
When decision No. 262/262 was adopted by the Kyiv City Council in 2008, current mayor Vitali Klitschko was in opposition but later changed his stance and pushed for the approval of a new version of the General Plan.
Experts and public activists have consistently opposed the city authorities' initiative to develop the new General Plan. indicated They argue that the new General Plan is primarily aimed at legalizing illegal land acquisitions and concealing violations of the current General Plan of Kyiv, including the failure to fulfill development tasks for urban infrastructure.
Furthermore, urban planning and architecture experts have emphasized the need for the city leadership to address violations of the General Plan adopted in 2002, regardless of developing a new plan or updating the existing one.
However, the KSCA and the Kyiv City Council decided not to waste their time on such “trifles”, and the communal organization “Institute for the General Plan of the City of Kyiv” (KO “Kyivgenplan”) stubbornly took up the development of the draft of this document. In recent years, the city authorities have repeatedly — for example, in 2017, 2019 and 2020 — reported that the draft of the new General Plan is already ready and is about to be approved. One of the latest statements took place in November 2020 – then KO Kyivgenplan announced announced the start of public hearings on this document.
At the same time, during these years, the draft of the “new” General Plan of the capital has changed several times. Some such adjustments in the Kyiv City Council indicated the fact that the initial project is already outdated, because its development began decades ago. At the same time, experts argued that different sources actually published different versions of the draft General Plan at the same time, and its graphic materials sometimes did not correspond to textual ones, which made the study and discussion of this document significantly complicated. explained In addition, specialists were surprised that the city authorities could not decide for what period the “new” General Plan should be designed. As already noted, when deciding the Kyiv City Council No. 262/262, the city leadership prescribed that the “new” General Plan of Kyiv should be valid until 2025. But in the future, KO “Kyivgenplan” and the Kyiv City State Administration reported that this document would determine the development of the city until 2040. At the same time, individual initial data of one of the variants of the draft General Plan were generally prescribed for a certain “perspective”, the time frame of which was not indicated by the developers of the document.
As a reminder, since October 26, 2021, Kyivgenplan has been headed by Dmitry Lykov as acting head. His predecessor in this post was
Sergei Bronevitsky who led this communal organization from August 27, 2010 to September 30, 2021. “Kyivgenplan” reports to the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration, which since November 1, 2016 is headed Alexander Svistunov For a long time, the work of this department was directed and controlled by the First Deputy Chairman of the KSCA Nikolai Povoroznik, but from April 2, 2021, this function was assigned to the Deputy Chairman for the implementation of self-governing powers of the KSCA Petr Olenych..
Since March 4, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has been headed by Denys Shmigal (on the collage on the right), ex-Chairman of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration (from August 1, 2019 to February 5, 2020) and ex-Minister for the Development of Communities and Territories (from February 4 to February 4, 2020). March 2020) .
Ivan Kulik, translation
Skeleton.Info : Nikolai Povoroznik: Koreiko from the Kyiv City State Administration, or a modest operator of financial schemes. PART 1
DOSSIERApproval of the new General Plan of Kyiv depends on the courts The Administrative Court of Appeal may soon put an end to the case on appealing against the actions of the Kyiv City State Administration on the development of a new Master Plan for Kyiv. In the relevant proceedings, an individual Igor Gets is […]
