The construction of a multistoried residential complex in Mykilska Slobidka in Dniprobskyi district of Kyiv is a bright illustration of one of the most widely spread schemes used by Kyiv municipal council for allocating particularly valuable land lots from protected reserve for construction purposes. This is the persuasion of environmentalists of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” (EPL).
As you can see in the video filmed from the air, the residential complex is constructed at a small distance from the water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpjnDIiw_WI
According to Art. 60 of the Land Code of Ukraine, bank lines of big rivers (including the Dnipro) have coastal protective zones of 100 meters wide for which a number of limitations apply, including the prohibition for construction works (p. 4 of Part 2 of Art. 89).
“Coastal protective zones do not need to have cadaster registration or special documentation. Their size is measured from the water line for a certain distance”, tells EPL environmentalist Oleksiy Vasyliuk.
However, there are some important details. The Water Code of Ukraine says that “In residential areas coastal protective zones are established with account taken of municipal construction documentation.” This is how this provision sounds in the new edition of the Code of 2010. Earlier in the old edition of the Code this provision regulated the width of the costal protective zone like this: “within residential areas it is established according to the circumstances”. “This was the wording that was included to the Water Code because almost all residential areas in Ukraine are located along rivers and other water objects. Therefore, when adopting the Code it was necessary to envisage preservation of the constructions that already exist but avoid legalization of new construction works – adds Oleksiy. – However, Kyiv municipal council understands this provision in its own way. When the old edition of the Code applied, there were adopted a big number of decisions about allocating land lots on the Dnipro banks in Kyiv under excuse “that it just happened so …that we adopted the decision about allocating a land lot”. For a long time such a position has been acceptable even for courts”.
Currently the Supreme Court of Ukraine formed the legal position regarding the issue of legality of allocating land lots for construction works in coastal protective zones. “When the land lots were allocated for use in the vicinity of the mentioned and other water objects, these provisions regarding limits of water protective zones and coastal protective lines had to be taken account of. In cases of absence of land cadaster registration and land arrangement documentation for coastal protective lines of water objects, preservation of water objects had to be ensured through consideration of norms for coastal protective lines set in Art. 88 of the water Code of Ukraine and approximate sizes and limits of water protective zones defined by the Resolution #486 with account taken of specific situations” (the Resolution of the Supreme Court of Ukraine of 21 May 2014 (case #6-16 цс 14)1).
Dozens of decisions have been adopted by the Supreme Court of Ukraine on the basis of this legal position but there is no decision on the construction in Mykilska Slobidka. The people’s deputy Ihor Lutsenko sees a political component in this construction work and believes that that the refusal to cancel illegal decisions is part of official position of Kyiv municipality. “Mykilska Slobidka is a symbol ofanomy of the nearest circle of friends and political allies of Vitaliy Klichko. Self-will of construction works performed by these people threatens the environment of the Dnipro, ruins the landscape and violates basic environmental rights of Kyiv residents. Together with people’s deputies we have been demanding from Klichko and enforcement authorities to stop this attack on the nature but it looks like Klichko and police are on the other side of barricades”, – comments the situation the people’s deputy.
Contacts:
Oleksiy Vasyliuk, EPL’s environmentalist
office@epl.org.ua, vasyliuk@gmail.com
(032) 225 76 82, 097 100 04 73
1 https://www.google.com.ua/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=21%20%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BD%D1%8F%202014%20%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%83%20%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0%20%E2%84%96%206-16%20%D1%86%D1%81%2014
