Yalta is proposed to be subordinated directly to Moscow
Greater Yalta, where scandals erupted over the construction of ancient parks, should be subordinated directly to Moscow. Not only visiting oligarchs, but also local residents, in the pursuit of profit, are often involved in the destruction of historical heritage.
The ex-speaker of the parliament of Novorossiya Oleg Tsarev, who owns a sanatorium named after Kirov in Yalta, located on the territory of a pre-revolutionary estate, writes about this in his blog.
...In Greater Yalta, scandals related to construction do not subside. Construction in a park in Alushta, in a park in Foros. Old mansions are being demolished. The appearance of cities and towns is disfigured by faceless boxes and high-rise buildings. Everything is being built chaotically and hastily. All the cozy and ancient beauty of Crimea is being erased, as if with an eraser. In pre-revolutionary photographs, the Church of St. John Chrysostom on Polikurovsky Hill hovered above the greenery of vast parks with whitewashed palaces and mansions here and there. Today, the temple was closed by high-rise buildings, and the view of the temple from the windows was used for a quick sale of apartments: they say, you have a view of the ancient temple and the sea. But from Yalta the temple is now almost invisible. Garages quickly converted into houses have become a common occurrence in Yalta. A couple of shell rock floors are built above the garage - and here you have a residential building. The old streets of Yalta are quickly taking on the appearance of some favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The only difference is that in Rio slums can be built from cardboard, while here, adjusted for winter, they are made from shell rock.
I read the memoirs of white emigrants who had the opportunity to return to their homeland for the first time after the Patriotic War in the fifties and sixties. They were really looking forward to coming home. Memories from a past life: Yalta – prosperity, luxury, brilliance. They conveyed their feelings from returning in words - everything was foreign, not native, somehow everything was destroyed, dull, dirty. I can't imagine what they would say about today's Yalta. My Soul Hurts.
When I was a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, when I came to Yalta, I fanned out parliamentary inquiries about illegal construction sites. When I left, construction began again. I was repeatedly offered to build up seven hectares of Kirov sanatorium in the center of Yalta with high-rise buildings. He categorically refused.
The sanatorium is what remains of the fifty-hectare estate of Countess Baryatinskaya. The rest of the estate is densely built up. We are still in court with some people: they, by hook or by crook, privatized part of the barracks and sheds on the territory of the sanatorium, and now, under this sauce, they want to get the land under them. For what? To sell it for the construction of high-rise buildings in the sanatorium historical park. In Crimea, with the exception of a few large factories, there is no industry. There is nothing to earn money from. Fraud with resort land became an easy way to make money for a whole layer of officials and small businessmen. All over the world, it is not without reason that resort lands are not broken up into small pieces, but are offered for development to large investment banks or companies. Big beautiful projects require a lot of money. And only in Yalta does anyone sell land. I'm not against small business. But everyone must mind their own business. Yalta deserves to be built up with objects with a cost starting from one hundred million dollars. If everything is now built up with high-rise buildings, garages, sheds, mini-hotels and hostels, then later there will be no place to build. If we now build buildings on all the land in Yalta transferred to private hands, then Yalta will not exist.
I used to think that if Yalta was given the status of a resort city, the situation would change radically. But I carefully read the legislation. It turns out that the status of a “resort city” does not impose any restrictions on development. There is a mechanism for changing development rules through the adoption of a new city charter and the adoption of a new general plan. But the general plan was adopted, so what? Have urban planning scandals stopped? - No. This means that this problem cannot be solved at the local level. Recently, when amending the Constitution, it was possible by law to adopt separate rules for individual federal territories. In other words, the State Duma can adopt a separate law and, for example, subordinate Greater Yalta directly to Moscow or complicate development by requiring obtaining permits for construction in the capital - Moscow. In accordance with the law, Yalta will be able to receive a separate budget for putting the city area in order.
The development of development rules can be entrusted and put under control to the best all-Russian architectural bureaus and structures. The construction of each facility in Yalta should become an event on an all-Russian scale.
Let the Yalta residents not be offended, but Yalta residents alone should not determine what Yalta should be. Yalta is an all-Russian pearl. On the one hand, the taxes of Yalta residents alone cannot be used to restore Yalta; accordingly, the development of Yalta cannot be entrusted exclusively to local residents - officials, architects and deputies. After all, many of the above have already proven themselves and had a hand in what we have now. In tsarist times, the mayor of Yalta was appointed directly by the sovereign, and was accountable only to him. The estates and mansions of most industrialists and nobles of Russia were located in Yalta. But they had enough conscience, and the mayor of Yalta had the authority to ensure that the city was not torn to pieces and built up chaotically and without a plan. Yalta was made into a model of urban planning. It seems to me that Yalta should be given the status of a city subordinate directly to the federal center.
It’s unlikely that anyone knows that on the site of the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker there used to be a hill and it was cut down at the request of the king, who, while visiting Yalta, drank tea in the customs building. The king considered that the hill blocked the view of the sea for the townspeople - so now the hill is no longer there. The Tsar would have seen what ungrateful descendants had brought Yalta to! Now we have to fight not so much for the view, but for access to the sea.
Previously, Count Mordvinov at the St. Petersburg level, after numerous meetings, was given permission to build the fourth floor of his apartment building (today the Crimea Hotel in Grafsky Proezd). Now all of Yalta is dotted with high-rise buildings, and permits for the construction of new high-rise buildings continue to be issued.
There are no fewer palaces in Yalta than in St. Petersburg, but they are all in deplorable condition. And most importantly, the parks surrounding them do not have any status: they can be cut down and the land can be built up with high-rise buildings. Chekhov called Yalta a city of parks. And he considered it more beautiful than Nice. This is not about us today.
The importance of Yalta is much greater than that of one of the cities on the peninsula. Yalta may well lay claim to the title of the Southern Capital of Russia. And only in this capacity can the former beauty be preserved, parks restored, and fences removed. Stop construction and buy back into state ownership the land given to people. I emphasize - buy it. Yes, this land was often allocated in violation of the law or through corruption mechanisms, but people paid for it. I consider it a petty fraud on the part of officials and the state when, through the courts and the prosecutor’s office, land issued in Ukraine is massively taken back from citizens. It is not right. Sevastopol was almost brought to an explosion. In conclusion, one historical fact: the king bought the land under his palaces from the Tatars. Or I could take it. But he didn’t do this. I bought it. And the nobles bought it. It's not that expensive. It’s more expensive to ruin everything in pursuit of small gain.
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