In St. Petersburg, the demolition of buildings designated as cultural heritage sites has been banned. 

Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg accepted The law banning the demolition of buildings designated as cultural heritage sites (CHS) and owned by the state has passed its third reading. The document will now be sent to the governor for signature. To Alexander Beglov, after which it will come into force on April 15, 2024.

In effect, the law prohibits the demolition of a building if it has been applied for inclusion on the list of cultural heritage sites. Developers will have to wait for a decision from the Committee for the Protection of Monuments, which will either include the building in the register or deny it. Only then can it be demolished. 

Such buildings were previously prohibited from being demolished, but developers often exploited a loophole requiring the builders themselves to submit an application for inclusion of a building on the list of cultural heritage sites if they discovered its value during construction. When the application was submitted by preservationists, the developers ignored it.

NotMoscow Wrote About the scandalous demolition of the Basevich House in the historic center of St. Petersburg, when the early twentieth-century Art Nouveau apartment building was torn down after the developer provided a certificate stating that the building was not included on the list of identified cultural heritage sites. One of the students who protested the demolition of the Basevich House was expelled from the university for activism.

Photo: Press Service of the KGIOP of St. Petersburg