Sochi Mayor discusses problems of parallel road with the public

On March 14, Anatoly Pakhomov, Sochi Mayor, provided his study for talks on compensations and damage caused to the city by Olympic construction with 15 public activists who came there.

The main topic of the meeting was the Olympic object - the third phase of the parallel road to Kurortny Avenue; the parallel road was routed across the sanitary-buffer zone of Tchaikovsky Street. According to Svetlana Shekhmametieva, a resident of the neighbourhood, under Point 46 of the Rules of Land Use and Development, this territory was not subject to town-planning changes; however, on coordination with local bureaucrats and with no regard for public opinion, it was decided to lay the Federal Highway right here. According to her story, this project violated the rights of local citizens.

This opinion was supported by all the activists of public organizations present. Vladimir Ostapuk, Chairman of the Ecological Council of Sochi, noted that social crudity of the project has led to multiple protest actions and pickets held by Sochi residents against routing the road along Tchaikovsky Street. "Thousands of signatures were gathered in protest, but citizens' views were ignored, which resulted in growth of social tension," he said.

Olga Kozinskaya, Chair of the Sochi Town-Planning Council, stressed that her Council had done everything possible to save the street. "An alternative project was offered to route the highway across the industrial zone of the concrete products factory. However, since it was deemed necessary, according to experts of the Russian Federal Road Agency (Rosavtodor), to launch the project as soon as possible, the alternative project was rejected," she said.

The public activists also reminded that the Mayor had repeatedly assured citizens that he would take measures to eliminate violations. Anatoly Pakhomov, in his turn, stressed that "he did everything possible, but his proposals was rejected at the top."

The representatives of the public demanded from the Mayoralty to pay compensations and restore the sanitary-buffer zone in Tchaikovsky Street. The Mayor promised to convey these demands to the representative of "Rosavtodor" in Sochi. However, he noted that Sochi has no more vacant areas for tree planting; there is no room to restore the sanitary-buffer zone of Tchaikovsky Street. "Therefore, the trees will be planted, but in another place," he said.

Anatoly Pakhomov decided to authorize the department of forests and parks to work closely with community activists and verify the compliance of the felled trees with the available permit. "They should identify by signs who, when and at what time is running the building and felling works; and they should also mark the trees, intended for cutting, with paint," he explained.

Regarding the noise at night, the Mayor gave an order to inform the UVD (Interior Department) of Sochi and ask them to take control of the working time of the contracting organizations of the "Rosavtodor" in Tchaikovsky Street, and supervise their work according to the legislation, that is, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.