Saving Kytaiv: How did Kytaiv City Administration and Kyiv City Council Respond to the petition by Kyivans, setting a record?
Deputy Mayors of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko – Petro Olenych and Volodymyr Prokopiv – believe that the petition of Kyiv residents to protect the Kytaiv site from development should be supported. They wrote this to the Secretary of the Kyiv City Council Volodymyr Bondarenko.
The petition gathered almost 8700 votes from Kyiv residents and set a record this year for the number of collected votes. According to the Kyiv City State Administration (KMDA), this is one of the most popular petitions in the last 4 years.
Kytaiv is a monument of national importance: remnants of fortifications, Trypillian ceramics, housing from the times of Kyivan Rus with clay stoves, and more have been found here. Ukraine is the only European capital that has preserved within its borders a complex of archaeological cultural heritage of an ancient city. Currently, the development of this area is planned by KAN Development (Igor Nikonov). The prosecutor’s office and the courts have taken the side of the national monument, and the Ministry of Culture emphasized that the local authorities could not allocate this land for development.
The fight to preserve this area has been going on for almost 20 years. The author of the petition, Maryna Kovalenko, notes that the residents of the capital demand that the local authorities do not renew the lease agreement:
When does the lease agreement expire?
Maryna Kovalenko
The author of the petition to protect the Kytaiv site
At the end of July this year, the deadlines will expire, giving the deputies a chance to terminate the lease of this land, which was allocated back in the days of Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko. The Kyiv Vegetable Factory was backed by the controversial former MP Viktor Pylypyshyn, who underwent a trash lustration after the Maidan. Now we see different developers. We will monitor the individual voting in the Kyiv City Council regarding these lease agreements.
In his letter to the secretary of the Kyiv City Council, Olenych emphasizes that the decision to refuse to renew lease agreements for land plots is made exclusively by the city council.
An excerpt from the letter of Vitaliy Olenych, the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, to the secretary of the Kyiv City Council, Bondarenko.
The secretary of the Kyiv City Council, Volodymyr Bondarenko, commented to the civic initiative “Holka,” stating that currently, the matters concerning these land plots are being considered by the courts.
What are the plans at the Kyiv City Council?
Volodymyr Bondarenko
Secretary of the Kyiv City Council
The matter is currently in the stage of judicial review, so the Kyiv City Council does not plan to consider the renewal of the lease agreement until the final court decision takes effect. We will wait to see the facts established by the court, and only then will the Kyiv City Council make a decision. It could be either a refusal to extend the lease agreement or possibly its renewal. Given that this is a monument of national significance, the relevant departments of the Kyiv City State Administration are currently working with the Ministry of Culture to formalize documents regarding the establishment of protective zones. According to our information, unfortunately, protective zones have not yet been established.
Let’s recall that currently, two cases are being heard in the Northern Appeals Commercial Court upon the lawsuit filed by the prosecutor’s office, which is defending two land plots from development in the Kytayiv territory.
In Europe, similar historical sites are turned into open-air museums. For instance, in Norway, where Viking settlements were discovered, they created Sagastad.
The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, which develops legal practice for the entire country, has already considered a similar case regarding the mounds in Chernihiv region, where there was archaeological heritage. The decision of the village council to lease this land to a private individual was overturned.
