A company affiliated with KSM Group is preparing to build 100-meter high-rises adjacent to the Holosiivskyi Scientific Production Enterprise.
While the war rages in Ukraine, some developers, with the connivance of the Kyiv City State Administration, are wresting the right to build 100-meter-high mixed-use complexes (BFCs with residential space) in the capital, essentially in the Holosiivskyi Forest. This concerns commercial development on the land plot of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine at 65 Akademika Glushkova Avenue (up to the Holosiivskyi Scientific Production Enterprise). Yug-Proekt LLC (a company affiliated with KSM-Group) has already received planning approval for this construction in the court of first instance. Officially, the city authorities tried to limit the developer's appetites, but, as practice shows, such dubious restrictions by the Kyiv City State Administration are easily appealed in court, writes HF.
As KV has learned, on October 4, 2022, the Kyiv District Administrative Court (KDC) upheld the claims of Yug-Proekt LLC (case No. 640/11755/22) and ordered the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture (KCDA) to amend certain provisions of the Urban Development and Restrictions (UDR) for the construction of the BFK at 65 Akademika Glushkova Avenue (Holosiivskyi District, Kyiv). In effect, this court authorized the construction of structures over 100 meters tall at this address.
It's safe to assume that officials from the capital's city administration will attempt to challenge this verdict in the appellate court. But, as often happens, such an attempt will likely be purely formal, just for show.
KSM-Group. How it all began
According to the court decision registry, on October 27, 2017, the Bureau of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine issued Resolution No. 280 "On the Construction (Reconstruction) of Housing and Other Real Estate at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine." According to this document, the academy's subordinate institutions were instructed to address housing issues for their employees by constructing housing on land plots permanently used by these institutions. For this purpose, it was recommended to engage private sector entities under special agreements.
On July 4, 2017, the Bureau of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, by Resolution No. 213, granted approval for the development of, in particular, the land plot at 65 Academician Glushkov Avenue, which is state-owned and is owned by the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine under the right of permanent use. This plot has an area of 5,69 hectares and cadastral number 8000000000: 79: 713: 0855 and the intended purpose - “for the construction and maintenance of buildings and structures of scientific institutions” (“for the maintenance and operation of buildings and structures of scientific institutions”).
Approximate location of the development site
The same document also agreed that Yug-Proekt LLC would act as the construction investor. On August 21, 2017, the I.I. Shmalgauzen Institute of Zoology and the aforementioned company signed an agreement for the development of the said land plot.
The agreement in question is not publicly available, so the terms under which the parties agreed to cooperate are unknown. However, in practice, similar agreements between government agencies and developers of their land most often stipulate that these companies finance the construction at their own expense and, upon completion, transfer a certain percentage of residential and non-residential space in the completed buildings or a certain percentage of the proceeds from the sale of such real estate to the "budgetary entities."
MOU with "gaps"
On February 14, 2022, the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture issued Yug-Proekt LLC MOU No. 194 for the construction of a BFK at 65 Akademika Glushkova Avenue. This document is also not publicly available—MUOs are published on the Portal of the Unified State Electronic System in Construction (USESC), which is not currently publicly available due to martial law. However, some initial data on the planned construction at this address can be found in the state register of court decisions.
As KB has discovered, the Kyiv City State Administration has authorized Yug-Proekt LLC to develop a construction project for buildings at the specified address with a maximum height of 44,9 meters (approximately 14-15 stories – KV). According to the Municipal Construction Regulations (MCR), the building's construction percentage should be calculated in accordance with the State Building Codes (SBC). Importantly, the document clarified that the design site is located within the boundaries of a nature reserve fund—specifically, the Holosiivskyi National Nature Park (NNP). Therefore, officials wrote that developers must develop design documentation in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine."
It's worth noting that the area at 65 Akademika Glushkova Street, according to the map, is effectively cordoned off by the Teremki tract, which is part of the Holosiivskyi National Park. The address listed in internet searches leads to the research base of the aforementioned institute. This base appears to be inactive.
Yug-Proekt LLC disagreed with the initial data provided by the Municipal Unitary Enterprise, which is why the aforementioned legal dispute was initiated in the summer of 2022.
The developer decided that the Kyiv City State Administration's municipal department should permit the construction of structures over 100 meters tall on this site, "with a recommendation for residential buildings between 25 and 31 stories tall and administrative and amenity buildings between 9 and 31 stories tall." Yug-Proekt LLC explained this by saying that when determining the height, the Kyiv City State Administration's relevant department applied the State Building Norms (DBN) standards for residential buildings, whereas the site specifically plans to construct a BFK.
Among other things, the plaintiff demanded the repeal of the municipal land use plan, which established that the site was located within the boundaries of a nature reserve fund. This is likely because, in such a case, the company faces development restrictions and must obtain additional approvals. Yug-Proekt LLC stated that, in fact, this land was not included within the designated territory. They claimed that, according to Presidential Decree No. 794/2007 of August 27, 2007, establishing the park, the Holosiivskyi National Park included only the "adjacent" three plots, which are in permanent use by the I.I. Shmalgauzen Institute of Zoology.
In its decision of October 4, 2022, the OASK granted Yug-Proekt LLC's request for adjustments to the MOU standards. Therefore, the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture was obligated to make and register these changes and post them in the Unified State Register of Urban Development and Construction (EGESDB). The court only denied the company's request that these adjustments also be registered and posted in the system by DIAM and GP Deystvie (this company is the administrator of the construction activity register – KV).
It's worth noting that Yug-Proekt LLC is planning to develop another site, which is permanently owned by the I.I. Shmalgauzen Institute of Zoology, just three kilometers away from the aforementioned site. This is a 1,1-hectare site at 36 Akademika Lebedeva Street (cadastral number 8000000000:79:476:0018), on which the company intends to construct residential buildings with integrated and attached public spaces. Yug-Proekt LLC received the relevant municipal planning permits for this construction project from the relevant department of the Kyiv City State Administration back in December 2020.
It should also be noted that problems with development in Kyiv within or adjacent to protected nature areas are most often related to the lack of clearly defined boundaries for such zones. As KV has repeatedly reported, over the past decade and a half since the establishment of the Holosiivskyi National Park, the Kyiv City State Administration has failed to develop land management documentation for this protected area, nor has it established or mapped the boundaries of thousands of hectares of green space.
As a result, this park currently exists only on paper, and there is no buffer zone around it where construction is prohibited. Consequently, Moscow developers are unstoppable in their desire to develop prime land within or immediately adjacent to the national park.
Read: Housing disguised as a hotel: How Ternopil developers plan to develop 18 hectares of land in Kyiv's Svyatoshinsky district
Expert Opinion
As Moscow lawyer and human rights activist Oleksandr Dyadyuk told KV, the city's authorities often issue dubious building permits to clients with the prospect of subsequently challenging certain provisions of these documents in court. He believes this happens, for example, when Kyiv City State Administration officials are "apprehensive" about immediately including the standards required by developers in the building permits, but understand that this will be done later in accordance with a court decision.
According to Alexander Dyadyuk, even the legality of the MOU issued to Yug-Proekt LLC raises many questions. Unfortunately, since this permit is not publicly available, it is currently difficult to determine any potential violations.
"I plan to submit a series of inquiries to the Kyiv City State Administration to determine whether officials had the right to approve the developer's plans to develop this territory in this manner. In all likelihood, after receiving responses to these inquiries, my colleagues and I will file a complaint with the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeals against the verdict of the court of law of October 4, 2022. We may also file a separate lawsuit with the OAC to challenge the municipal unitary enterprises themselves. The court's decision says nothing about whether the land at 65 Akademika Glushkova Avenue is classified as a historical area, what development zone it falls under, etc. This court document also fails to specify the functional purpose of the land—whether construction is permitted there according to Kyiv's General Plan, or whether housing can be built specifically. The court's decision is quite 'tricky.' The intended use of the land also raises questions—it would seem that residential construction is not intended there," said Oleksandr Dyadyuk.
Who is going to build it: KSM-Group?
According to the Youcontrol analytical system, the capital Yug-Proekt LLC was founded in December 2008. The company's director is Natalia Vozna, the founder and ultimate beneficiary is Kyiv resident Nikolai Kopistira.
The Youcontrol system classifies Yug-Proekt LLC as part of the KSM-Group, which unites approximately six dozen companies involved in the design and construction of residential complexes, infrastructure facilities, bridges, roads, and other projects. Key figures in this group include Arseniy Kopistira (son of Nikolai Kopistira, pictured left in the collage), Tatyana Chernenko, and the aforementioned Natalia Vozna.
According to open According to sources, Arseniy Kopistira is the son-in-law of Mykhailo Verbenskyi, a police colonel general, the current head of the State Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, former head of the General Staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (2005-2007 and 2014-2015), and a former member of the Central Election Commission (2018). Arseniy Kopistira himself taught at the Taras Shevchenko National Institute of Economics and Management in Kyiv until at least 2020. His brother, Serhiy Kopistira, according to the Nashi Dengi portal, was an assistant to Yuriy Karakai, a member of parliament of the fifth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (elected from the Party of Regions).
As KV has repeatedly reported, developers affiliated with KSM Group are actively developing Kyiv lands used by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and its subordinate entities. Specifically, this concerns land in the Feofaniya area (Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv)—four of the five residential complexes for which KSM Group is the stated developer are being built there.
The developers' implementation of these projects is fraught with scandals, lawsuits, and public protests. Among the most recent examples: in January 2022, companies affiliated with KSM Group demolished a dormitory belonging to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on Metrologichnyi Street (Holosiivskyi District), where residents still live, to construct high-rise buildings. During one protest against this development, a violent confrontation even erupted between local residents and some individuals, whom public activists dubbed "titushki."
Since April 2021, Vitaliy Kharchenko, Doctor of Zoological Sciences, has headed the I.I. Shmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He succeeded Igor Akimov, who headed the institution from 1987 until his death in April 2021. Anatoly Zagorodniy has been the head of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine since October 2020. Previously, since 1962, the academy's president was Yevhen Paton, who died in August 2020.
The position of Director of the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration has been held by Alexander Svistunov (pictured on the right in the collage). Since April 2, 2021, the activities of this department have been overseen by Petro Olenych, Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration for the Exercise of Self-Government Powers.
translation Skelet.Org
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