The Detailed Territory Plan (DTP) as a threat of destruction of the Lybid River was «wrapped up» (repealed) by the community

18.03.2021

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«A sad truth has been revealed to me: life disappears like the river Pochayna,» Lina Kostenko, one of the most outstanding domestic masters of the lyrical word, wrote in one of her poetic works. Writing these lines in the late 1980-s, the poetess remarked: «In the ages, and even in years, the river will become a memory of the river».

Well, years have passed and almost three decades after writing these lines, the city authorities still paid attention to the river, which was almost destroyed by the continuous construction of urban space – the decision of the Kyiv City Council N 838/1842 from February 10, 2017 was created “Park Pochayna” , and one of the metro stations in the capital was named “Pochayna”.

Small river’s destiny

Another, no less legendary metropolitan waterway, things are much worse now. According to the new Detailed Territorial Plan (DTP) within Druzhby Narodiv Boulevard, Velyka Vasylkivska, Shchorsa, Volodymyro-Lybidska, Kazymyr Malevych Streets and the railway in Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv, the Lybid River risks disappearing forever. Designers from Terra project company planned to bury the river, named after the sister of the founders of the majestic city, under a six-lane highway that will once connect the capital’s Left Bank housing estates with its business center through the New Darnytskyi Bridge.

The main ambassador of the event was the architect Andriy Lysenko, who became one of the main developers of the project. According to him, the transport interchange that will completely bury the 5.2 km long section of the legendary the Lybid River from the Baykova St. to Druzhby Narodiv Blvd., is no more than a requirement of time: «There is a new General Plan – it stipulates that the highway to the city center will pass through the entire river – the city needs to develop. » At the same time, Andriy Viktorovych himself does not see his guilt in the prospect of destroying the legendary Kyiv river: «Hiding a river in concrete is not our idea, we are just performers.» We will remind that the current General plan of the city of Kyiv-2020, approved by the decision of the Kyiv city council from 28.03. 2002, does not provide for changes in boundaries and contours, sewerage of the Lybid River, its effect expires on January 1, 2020.

Such bold ideas of the designers about the fate of one of the symbols of the city on the Dnieper immediately caused an influx of criticism from the public. Eco-activist and resident of Holosiivskyi district Svitlana Korolenok called on designers to come to their senses: «What you want to do with the Lybid is a mockery of the city’s history! My parents still remember the time when there was a harbor where steamboat barges with watermelons from Kherson used to enter. Nowadays you want to build a road in this place. Now you want to destroy all this once and for all».

However, the architect’s response to the wave of protest from local residents was more than unexpected for the latter. “Sewerage of the Lybid will help us reduce emissions – it will make the river healthier,” – argued the developers of DTP. According to Lysenko, the water artery sewerage project also involves relocating elements of all existing networks. That is, all existing water discharges to the Lybid, which today carry both construction and industrial discharges to the river, will be destroyed, and their users will be forced to connect to the centralized sewer collector.

However, it is difficult to believe in such truly noble ideas of designers. Proposed for consideration by the DPT, which we met in the hall, does not provide for the construction of any new treatment facilities within the projected area. Moreover, nowhere on the pages of the multi-volume DTP is it specified how the users will be reconnected to the new networks. This indicates that no reconnection may take place, as most discharges to the Lybid occur illegally, through so-called “connections” to the rain (storm) sewer system.

In general, the modern world today is not moving towards the destruction of natural objects, but on the contrary, developed countries are spending crazy amounts of money on their restoration. Here’s an example – a small river in the capital of South Korea called Cheonggyecheon.

In 1968, the river was completely hidden underground and there was an overground highway above it, much needed by the metropolis at that time for 12 million inhabitants. In two years, a two-story highway appeared here. Sewage was also discharged into the collector and almost everyone forgot about the existence of this river.

Thirty years later, South Koreans have seen the obvious environmental damage from the construction of a highway in the city center and the destruction of an element of the local environment. In 2003, Mayor Lee Myung-bak embarked on a project to restore the historic appearance of the Cheonggyecheon Stream, which was initially valued at $ 900 million. But the highway was demolished, completely overhauling the transport infrastructure in central Seoul. Lee Myung-bak became the country’s president with such a project.

There was an attempt to recreate the natural shores, new trees, bushes and reeds were planted, fry and frogs were launched. All storm drains in the direction of this river were equipped with filters. Currently, several non-governmental organizations are monitoring the reproduction of the Cheonggyecheon ecosystem, which in the fall and spring are literally listing all the animals available here, and posting the results on their websites.

The stream itself became an 11-kilometer-long landscape park with 22 bridges and stone-paved passages. Today, it is one of Seoul’s favorite places to take tourists to show how progress is returning to nature. Unfortunately, in the capital of Ukraine there is a reverse process – we destroy nature so that we will leave nothing but concrete to the heirs…

Destruction for the sake of new buildings in the center

However, the destruction of the legendary river is not the only issue that provoked public protests, which gathered at the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture at Khreshchatyk St., 32. The highway, which is planned to «cover» the river, is being built here for a reason. Parallel to the route of its passage is Antonovycha St., where the residential complex «A136. Highlight House». The name of the complex fully corresponds to its future address – Antonovycha, 136, but today the construction site is strangely spread over two serial numbers of the street – 136-138. According to the DTP, it is planned to build a 12-storey residential building with office sections and parking.

At the same time, on the website of the developer, the company DIM group, you can find information about 33 floors and 2-level underground parking!

Oleksiy Tikhonov, a local resident, pointed out this discrepancy: «You are now telling us that there will be a 12-storey house here, while the 33rd floor is already being BUILT there. Do you understand this? There are already beating piles on 33 floors, and here you are showing us pictures of how 12 is planned there. Do not you have any information about what you are designing or have you already been misled by the developers?»

DTP developer Lychenko decided to avoid an answer to the direct question, reducing the fact that the design of such large facilities as individual neighborhoods of the city is the work of many experts and he cannot be directly responsible for each case of data discrepancy.

By the way, it is interesting that the company DIM group provides a visualization of the future 33-storey skyscraper with a green area around the OPEN riverbed of the Lybid on the site of the residential complex «A136. Highlight House». Thus, in this component, contradicting the developers of the official town-planning document – DTP.

It is impossible to understand from the vague testimony of the person responsible for the development of DTP – Lysenko, who and why underestimates the number of storeys almost three times, and hence the number of inhabitants of another concrete monster in the center of the capital taking into account which it is necessary to make changes to the DPT in the section of places in educational and health care institutions, parking lots, environmental consequences, etc. However, it becomes quite clear why, or rather for whom a new highway is being built in the Lybid.

This time we can talk about a certain consensus of large developers with the city authorities on the future of the neighborhood and its transport accessibility. This was facilitated by the fact that in accordance with the provisions of current legislation and acts of local authorities – the development of DTP can be engaged not only in specialized state or municipal enterprises, institutions or organizations, but any legal entities that have the appropriate certificate. If we take into account the fact that the development of DTP can also be sponsored by private individuals and legal entities, an ideal picture of the welfare state is formed. However, the place of the state as the highest social superstructure, which controls all processes and is designed to solve everyday problems of citizens by the executive and local governments, is occupied by money and connections as universal means of solving problems.

Terra project company, which has developed DTP, is owned by Andriy Vavrysh, the owner of another well-known development company – Saga development; Saga development also has a fiberglass structure in the design area called the New Yorker. Thus, planning and construction, today, in the capital is actually carried out by the same people who gradually began to realize the financial value of comfortable living conditions for future homeowners. However, it is a pity that so far this awareness applies only to the transport accessibility of real estate. As for the social infrastructure – apparently construction innovators do not have the ideas.

«Since Independence, 1991, no kindergarten or school has been built in the area, a year ago one of the old kindergartens on Krasnoarmeyskaya Street was demolished,» Oleksii Tikhonov says. The local resident, like most of those present, was concerned about only one question – «where should people go?», because the project for the development of the territory, which is DTP, does not provide for the construction of any new preschool, school or higher education institution. The arithmetic here is quite simple –according to the official data of the State Statistics Committee as of 01.01.1991 2.62 million people lived in Kyiv, as of 01.01.2018 – 2.93 million people. Therefore, the population of the city has officially increased by only 310 thousand people, unofficially – this figure can reach one million.

However, following Mr. Lysenko’s remark made during his speech – «It is considered as follows: one apartment for one person. And how to count?? Maybe a person has an apartment, but he does not live in it at all», we will take into account only a slight increase in the number of Kyiv residents in the only separate interdistrict of Kyiv – it simply does not exist on paper and is not planned for the future!

The problem of the capital in the lack of school and preschool education institutions is covered in the DTP only by the potential possibility of reconstruction of existing institutions with an increase in their number of children.

As a result, given all the above, the ambitious plans of the designers failed to meet the demands of Kyiv residents who came to hear about the changes in Druzhby Narodiv Boulevard, Velyka Vasylkivska, Shchorsa, Volodymyro-Lybidska, Kazymyr Malevych and the railway in Holosiivskyi district. Another question is how to influence the decision on DTP, which does not meet the requirements of the community, but rather simply contradicts its interests?

This time, salvation was found in the signing of the Protocol of the public meeting, drawn up by Kyiv residents themselves, which would correspond to the real will of the community. Oleksandr Yurchenko, a public activist and elected representative of the interests of Goloseevites in the Verkhovna Rada from «Sluha Narody» («Servant of the People») party, initiated its drafting and was one of the signatories. According to him, the adoption of such a DTP will be nothing more than a manifestation of the arbitrariness of the authorities, as the provisions of this document contradict not only the interests of residents but also common sense: « After listening to the speakers, the community concluded that this detailed plan of the territory is only going to increase the load on infrastructure, destroy the Lybid, destroy the greenery in the neighborhood and increase housing construction… It’s just arbitrariness, because no rights of residents are taken into account here».

Residents of the neighborhood put their signatures under their own text of the protocol, written by hand directly during the consideration of the provisions of the DTP. The act of popular will determined the categorical disagreement of the residents with the position of the DTP in terms of inconsistency of its provisions with the actual data (altitude and population in the residential complex «A136. Highlight House»), plans to destroy the legendary river Lybid and the so-called monument of modernism known as «Tarilka» («Plate») on Lybidska metro station. According to Yurchenko, the protocol of public expression of will is an independent document that has legal force and will be forwarded to the Department of Urban Development and deputies of the Kyiv City Council.

If the residents of Holosiiv manage to change the provisions of the DTP in this way, it will be a precedent for changing the DTP on the basis of an act of popular will. «Aktyvni Gromadiany» («Active Citizens») will monitor further developments.

Dmitry Perov , founder of the NGO “Green Minute”