Kotsyubinske: The struggle for borders continues
The Kyiv City Council continues to fight to overturn the Bucha District Council's decision establishing the boundaries of Kotsiubynske. The Kyiv municipality is attempting to prove through legal action that its colleagues from the suburban district illegally allocated nearly 3 hectares of the Bilychansky Forest, which is owned by the Kyiv community, to this village. The Kyiv City Council has achieved an interim result—a suspension of the district council's decision, which makes it impossible to enter data on Kotsiubynske's significantly increased area and boundaries into the State Land Cadastre. It is noteworthy that the courts' findings in this case could be decisive in other proceedings. Starting in 2021, the Kyiv authorities intend to legalize the city's boundaries through the courts based on data from 1989-1990. Incidentally, this now refers to Kyiv's area of 82,7 hectares, not the 85,35 hectares reported at 36 Khreshchatyk Street in 2019, writes HF.
As KV has learned, a meeting of the OASK is scheduled for September 28, 2022, in case No. 640/35685/21, in which the Kyiv City Council is attempting to appeal the Bucha District Council's decision No. 180-11-VIII of October 20, 2021, "On approval of the land management project for establishing (changing) the boundaries of the village of Kotsiubynske in the Kyiv region."
Recently, the Kyiv municipality achieved an interim positive outcome: on August 16, 2022, the Cassation Administrative Court issued a ruling suspending the contested document as a measure to secure the claim until the courts of law render a final verdict on the case. According to Kyiv City Council lawyers, this will at least preclude the possibility of adding new information regarding the area and boundaries of Kotsiubynske to the State Land Cadastre.
The history of land encroachments on Kotsyubinske
As a reminder, according to the aforementioned decision, the Bucha District Council officially established the boundaries of Kotsiubynske and determined its area to be 2,9 hectares. The Kyiv City Council opposed the idea of this settlement "having such dimensions." The city authorities officially maintain that Kotsiubynske's actual area is 87 hectares (this area was recorded in several decisions of the Irpin City Council, to which this settlement belongs, dating back to 1984—KV), and the remaining territory is land belonging to the Kyiv community, which the Bucha District Council illegally "seized." In support of its claim, the Kyiv City Council stated, in particular, that such a boundary expansion can only occur with its consent, which was not the case in this case.
Back in early 2012, the Kotsiubynske Village Council submitted a letter to the Kyiv City Council requesting approval of a land management project to establish and change the boundaries of this village. This project envisaged expanding the boundaries of Kotsiubynske to cover 4065 hectares. However, on April 5, 2012, the Kyiv City Council decision No. 403/7740 The Kotsiubynske authorities refused to approve the document. The Kyiv City Council noted that Kotsiubynske's actual area is 87 hectares, and the village council's planned expansion would involve forestry lands within Kyiv. The lands in question were permanently assigned to the Svyatoshinsky Forest Park Enterprise.
The Kotsiubynsky Village Council disagreed with this refusal and filed a lawsuit with the OAC that same year to overturn the Kyiv City Council's decision. However, the village council failed to win the dispute—on May 29, 2014, the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled against the city council. completely refused Kotsiubynske's authorities to satisfy his demands. The courts then noted that Ukrainian legislation regulating land relations does not "require an adjacent land user (Kyiv City Council – KV) to agree to a land management project proposed by another land user that involves changes to the boundaries of a land plot." In other words, the argument essentially stated that the Kyiv City Council is not obligated to approve such documents.
After this, the disputes over Kotsiubynske's borders temporarily subsided. Over the next few years, messages about the need for this village to become part of Kyiv began to be heard increasingly frequently at various levels. The capital's authorities such an initiative supported. In September 2018, at the suggestion of the then Secretary of the Kyiv City Council Vladimir Prokopiv (currently a Kyiv City Council member from European Solidarity and deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration for the exercise of self-government powers), the deputies voted to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to annex Kotsiubynske to Kyiv. However, the issue never moved forward. In January 2020, the Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko I even had to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada again on this issue, as well as to the Cabinet of Ministers, also without any significant results.
Kotsyubinske. Phantom Limits
It should be noted that none of the above would have happened if the capital's leaders had taken care to formalize the city's borders in advance. But this issue remains unresolved.
Thus, in December 2019, the capital's city council, as a matter of urgency, approved A land management project to change Kyiv's boundaries, according to which the capital's area would increase to 85,35 hectares, was developed. However, this document was subsequently rejected by other "interested parties"—the Kyiv Regional Council, the State Geocadastre, and the Verkhovna Rada. One of the reasons for this was that, when preparing the project, the city authorities failed to consider the opinions of residents of the affected communities, effectively "single-handedly" assigning land to Kyiv from a number of suburban villages and settlements totaling over 2,7 hectares.
To address the issues with coordinating this document, the Kyiv City Council even created a special temporary control commission (TCC) in the second half of 2021. This body was supposed to establish "an effective dialogue with neighboring communities and the Kyiv Regional Council so that the documentation on Kyiv's borders would finally be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada for approval." However, there is no information in open sources about the constructive results of this body's work.
At the same time, the Kyiv City Council initiated a lawsuit against the State Geocadastre. In a lawsuit filed with the OAC, the Kyiv Municipality demands that the agency "include the existing Kyiv city boundary in the State Land Cadastre in accordance with the coordinates of the Kyiv city boundary defined in the "Catalogue of Coordinates and Elevations of Kyiv City Boundary Markers," compiled in 1989-1990 by the Ukrainian State Institute of Engineering and Geodetic Surveys and Surveying. Incidentally, the area of Kyiv, according to the catalogue, is 82,7 square metres. However, for now, the relevant legal proceedings have been officially "paused"—the OAC decided to consider this case after the aforementioned legal dispute between the Kyiv City Council and the Bucha District Council, as well as the legal dispute between the Kyiv City Council and the Kyiv Regional Council, which will be discussed below.
While Kyiv city authorities were grappling with the issue of their own "borders," the Kyiv region's regional authorities acted in the interests of their communities. On September 9, 2021, the Kyiv Regional Council, by Decision No. 114-05-VIII, approved the Kyiv Oblast Territorial Planning Scheme. This scheme, among other things, expanded the boundaries of Kotsiubynske, including by incorporating the Holosiivskyi National Nature Park (Bilichansky Forest—land that the Kyiv authorities consider "theirs"—KV).
The Kyiv City Council responded fairly quickly to this decision. On September 23, at the initiative of a group of deputies, the Kyiv City Council decided to appeal to the Kyiv Regional Council, the Office of the Prosecutor General, and various law enforcement agencies, demanding that they "prevent the illegal seizure of Kyiv's territorial community lands and prevent attempts to change the city's borders by unlawful means."
At the same time, the Kyiv City Council filed a lawsuit with the District Administrative Court (OAC) challenging the regional deputies' decision. Last year, the Kyiv City Council explained its demands by arguing that the land plots slated for inclusion in Kotsiubynske are located within Kyiv, and therefore Kyiv Regional Council officials had illegally disposed of them. As part of this lawsuit, the Kyiv City Council also filed a motion to suspend the decision until the case was resolved on the merits. However, the Kyiv City Administrative Court denied this motion in November 2021. Following this, the proceedings were "paused" (the OAC has not held any further hearings on the case), and the Kyiv City Council filed a new lawsuit with the Kyiv City Administrative Court with the same demands. However, this case has not yet been heard on the merits (after this case is heard, the OAC is scheduled to hear the legal dispute between the Kyiv City Council and the State Geocadastre. – KV).
Sad consequences
As KV has repeatedly reported, the capital's authorities periodically clash with neighboring territorial communities over the ownership of certain lands. The issue is that the Kyiv City Council considers such plots to be city territory, while village and town councils consider them to be their own.
For example, the Kyiv City Council believes that the Gostomel Village Council of the Bucha District of the Kyiv Oblast illegally transferred approximately 30 hectares of land to private ownership from the lands of the Kyiv municipal enterprise "Svyatoshinsky Forest Park Management" between 2009 and 2010. The Kozyn Village Council, according to the Kyiv municipality, took similar illegal actions regarding eight land plots. The Kyiv authorities also had similar disputes with Gnidin, Kozin, Gatnoye, Khodosovka, Knyazhichi, and other local executive authorities and district councils.
Thus, it becomes clear that in the absence of officially established Kyiv boundaries, land conflicts between the Kyiv City Council and adjacent local councils will only escalate. There is little hope of promptly resolving such disputes in the courts. It is also noteworthy that the capital's authorities are already seeking to have the city's boundaries recognized in court, covering an area of only 8,282,700 square meters, even though in December 2019 the Kyiv City Council approved a land management plan to change Kyiv's boundaries, according to which the capital's area would increase to 85,350 hectares.
Let us remind you that the Department of Land Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration has been headed by Valentina Pelykh (She served as acting head of this department from April 2, 2021). From July 27, 2018, to April 1, 2021, this department was headed by Petro Olenych, who, since April 2, 2021, has held the position of Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration, overseeing land and urban development issues in Kyiv.
Since June 25, 2014, the Kyiv City State Administration has been headed by Vitaliy Klitschko, who has been the permanent mayor of the capital since the same period (he has headed Kyiv for three consecutive terms as the capital's city council).
The Kotsyubinsky village council has been headed by Sergey Danish (on the left in the collage). As a reminder, he initially served as a member of this local government body, but as a result of a "coup," he became acting chairman of the council. On October 25, 2020, he was elected as the full-time head of Kotsiubynske following the local elections.
Since July 22, 2021, the Bucha District Council has been headed by Vladimir Dubas (on the right in the collage).
translation Skelet.Org
By topic: Kotsyubinske Mayor Matyushina left the BPP due to corrupt politicians.
Developers' cunning plans for "post-war"
Kyiv's General Plan: A Step Toward Order or a Large-Scale Developer Scam
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!