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The Law on Integrated Development of Territories (KRT) provides for the demolition of dilapidated or simply old buildings and the construction of new ones in their place, along with infrastructure such as kindergartens, schools, and clinics. Law no. 494-FZ Adopted in December of 2020, the "COVID" year. At first glance, this seems like an excellent solution to the problem of resettling "slums" and transforming such neighborhoods into modern ones. The very first attempts to implement the KRT in the regions showed that the programs are not targeting dilapidated neighborhoods, but simply conveniently located ones. People are being evicted from sturdy buildings with small compensation packages; instead of cozy neighborhoods with five-story buildings and spacious courtyards, high-rise buildings are being built; whether schools and clinics will be built remains to be seen. Opposition to the KRT is already widespread. вperformed In the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Petrozavodsk, Samara, Tyumen, and other cities. NeMoscow investigated what the KRT will bring to the regions and whether it can be combated.

Family Oksana Levkova from the Tyumen region Old Zareka She built a two-story house on her property. Two parking spaces, a small garden for strolls with four children, proximity to all social amenities and the city center—the family had been striving for these amenities for many years, having sold two apartments. My husband and I did all the interior finishing ourselves, denying ourselves vacations and other leisure options. They were nervous, worried, and bickered, researched the technology, but continued building. In the summer of 2022, the Levkovs learned from the press that their house was slated for demolition. For the sake of construction student campus. Along with their properties, authorities announced the demolition of 320 houses. By October, Zareka residents, having made incredible efforts, dobthere were cancellations renovation. In mid-December 2023, Oksana нwrote "They want to demolish my house again!" This time, several 16-story buildings, schools, and a kindergarten are planned to be built on the site of the Levkovs' house and dozens of neighboring buildings.

"Before we started building the house, we contacted the mayor's office to check if there were any plans for construction here. 'This is private housing construction land,' they told us. We believed them and built it. We have a variety of neighbors: some are dilapidated, but over 60% are well-maintained, solid homes, and the owners of these houses never planned to move into apartments." — says Oksana. — We're in the same situation. We chose to live in our own house on the property, not in an apartment. There's no final decision yet on whether to demolish our house, but we'll fight for it no matter what.

According to her, in Tyumen, the KRT process is not "strictly structured": in some cases, authorities listen to residents' demands and modify projects, and courts sometimes side with owners and rule in their favor regarding buyout payments. There are known cases where the municipality has allocated larger apartments to tenants of housing slated for demolition. "We're a wealthy region," Oksana explains of this unique phenomenon.

A Tyumen woman agrees with her. Elena K., which was only partially affected by the renovation: she bought an apartment in a new building "with a view of the sunrises and sunsets," but now a multi-story parking garage is being built under her windows.

"You could say that renovation began here 20 years ago: back then, a Roma camp was resettled from their illegally built homes on the left bank of the Tura River. Around 2007, a new neighborhood was built on the site, and new homes were built for the Roma, despite the lack of property titles in most cases. The next phase of renovation began about four years ago, and not everything went smoothly. People sued over small compensation for demolished housing, and the courts were simply inundated with such claims. Now, things have more or less normalized, and there are fewer dissatisfied people. What distinguishes our region from others is that we have a lot of people wanting to buy housing in new buildings: the region is prosperous, and many want to move here. But it's understandable that people don't want to move from cozy neighborhoods, let alone their own homes, to high-rise buildings." - explained the Tyumen woman.

Meanwhile, Tyumen is also home to plenty of "renovation" incidents and personal tragedies. Many, like the Levkov family, simply not want to moving into an apartment from your house, someone wouldn't mind moving, yes on the frontfalse compensation It will only be possible to buy a one-room apartment, and even that will be on the outskirts. В house On Elizarova Street, repairs to the entrance began at the same time as news of its inclusion in the KRT program was received, and on Maksima Gorky Street сcarry private garages - against the will of the owners.

In December, Tyumen residents directionor A video message to Putin asking for changes to the KRT law. The main complaint: property owners are completely unprotected, have no right to refuse to participate in renovation projects, and are unable to save their property.

A fountain with a baby elephant sculpture in front of a kindergarten, flowerpots in the spacious courtyards of two- and five-story buildings, a cascade of ponds where local residents would swim, two schools, six kindergartens, a clinic, and a gym—this is what the village of Shlakovy on the outskirts of Ryazan looked like during the Soviet era. Since about the 2010s, it has been "modernized": seven large residential complexes have been built, simultaneously destroying dacha communities and polluting waterways. Another large residential complex with three buildings is under construction on a small patch of land, and three 25-story buildings will soon be built there. Meanwhile, only four kindergartens remain, and the schools are overcrowded. According to one development plan for the village, a new school was already planned for Staroobryadchesky Proezd, but a private greenhouse is being built in its place. The sidewalks are broken, and there is no parking. Last year, the Ryazan administration responded to a local resident's inquiry with the following: "There is no information about organized public parking in the village of Shlakovy."

At the end of last year Shlakovy calledstarted with a platform for the KRT. Local residents learned about it from the media, and there was no public discussion. The private sector, which currently serves as a green barrier between the residential area and industrial enterprises, will be completely demolished. On these lands пhigh-rise buildings will appearThey will also be built in several courtyards of old five-story buildings. Parking is planned, but it was promised earlier and then "forgotten." There will be virtually no green space. The school was designed as a last resort, sometime around the 2040s. Until then, hundreds of students will be "compacted" into Secondary Schools No. 11 and No. 41, which are already almost twice as full, with 387 students, respectively.

A local resident Ekaterina Stefanova recordedla video message She appeared on a direct line with Putin, asking for his urgent intervention. According to her, the village was previously developed according to a territorial planning project (TPP), which was adopted with all sorts of violations—it failed to take into account population density, road and social infrastructure loads, and the promised underground parking was missing. Now, the development plan has been rebranded as a comprehensive territorial development, which essentially remains the same—spot development of a once cozy village.

"The KRT on Shlakovo will lead to classes with over 40 students, three shifts, and forget about promenades altogether. The area will be stuck in perpetual traffic jams. A friend lives in the Peter and Fevronia residential complex on Muromskoye Highway, and they queue in the morning just to leave the courtyard. The 'development' of our area will lead to the same thing. In the Dashkovo-Pesochnya microdistrict, children from School No. 75 will be bused to a new school in the Olympic Village area. Our children will face the same 'development'." — Stefanova asserts. — I believe our slums should be torn down and replaced with cozy, green residential neighborhoods featuring beautiful, harmonious architecture, convenient, well-thought-out layouts, and proactively developed infrastructure for the future. We should be proud of the comfort of our cities and the care of the state, so that we won't be ashamed of Russian cities.

The village's population is 13. The Aura residential complex, currently under construction, will accommodate 1,4 people, and the three 25-story buildings that will begin construction in the near future will accommodate 2,5. This is a "secondary" development, not included in the KRT. The exact number of people who will move to the village after the buildings are built under this program is unknown, but it will certainly be no fewer than those already living there.

So far, only a few activists have spoken out against the Shlakovy housing project in its current form. Residents of dilapidated private homes and multi-family barracks hope to receive adequate compensation, which will allow them to buy decent housing in the same area.

This is unlikely. This conclusion can be drawn from the experience of other regions.

All to the exit

In St. Petersburg, not only dilapidated apartment buildings but also panel five-story buildings built in the 1970s are slated for demolition under the KRT program.

"I live on Park Pdinners [downtown], a developer comes to me and says: I'm demolishing your house, do you want an apartment? I say: yes, please. They tell me: Shushary! A one-room apartment of approximately your size, privodit example lawyer Ekaterina Gulenkova. - Some developer wanted to build a more expensive house for wealthy people on the site of my house. In order to maintain, not improve, but simply preserve the standard of living I'm accustomed to, I have to pay 4 million rubles [on top of the buyout market value of a Khrushchev-era building] for 45 square meters in the same block. This figure shows how unprofitable and unfair it is to pay the market value."

The tricky part is that the law doesn't specify where exactly the developer must provide square meters to a resident whose home is slated for demolition. "Within the boundaries of the populated area," it says. into lawе About the St. Petersburg Housing and Utilities Commission. "Locality" is a vague concept, and it doesn't take into account the availability of infrastructure or proximity to a metro station. Furthermore, if the demolished property had a mortgage, it will have to be repaid early—most likely with a small compensation payment. The remainder of this amount should be invested in a new mortgage, but not at 6% or 9%, as was the case a few years ago, but at 16-17%.

Staying in your apartment or house by “simply refusing to move out,” as some dissenters plan, will not work.

"The developer comes with an offer to buy the apartment under the contract at market value. If the tenant refuses to sign the contract, they go to court and demand that the contract be enforced. The court grants the request, the developer can deposit the money in favor of the owner, and bailiffs will evict the tenant based on a court order." — Gulenkova clarified this point in a conversation with a NeMoskva correspondent.

There is no federal "KRT law" as such—there are a number of amendments to the Urban Development and Housing Codes. The State Duma adopted them at the end of 2020, when all public events and discussions were cancelled. They stipulate that regions have the right (but not the obligation) to amend regional legislation, including additional guarantees for "resettlers." No additional guarantees have been added to St. Petersburg's urban development legislation, nor to any other regions. These additional guarantees are available only to Muscovites.

Active residents of St. Petersburgstarted dact "Preemptively." They initially filed a class action lawsuit against the city's governor, Alexander Beglov, seeking the repeal of the KRT law. The plaintiffs' arguments consist of 17 points, including the lack of public hearings required by the provisions of the Russian Civil Code; the lack of guarantees for "resettlers" to receive housing; the violation of the rights of minors living near educational institutions and disabled people who have chosen comfortable ground-floor housing, and others. The main complaint is that the KRT should improve citizens' housing conditions, not worsen them, as is currently the case. A worsening of housing conditions, however, contradicts constitutional principles and the state's housing policy. The activists took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court overturned the ruling of the Third Cassation Court to hear the class action lawsuit filed by St. Petersburg residents, who demanded that the city's KRT law be declared invalid. The reason is that the KRT law currently exists in St. Petersburg: its implementation has been postponed until January 1, 2025. Deputies are preparing proposals to amend the law on the KRT, but they are unlikely to benefit the resettled residents of St. Petersburg.

Having studied all the nuances of the KRT law, Gulenkova concluded that the law was designed to lobby for the interests of developers. A major developer will be able to choose any territory they like for development, building higher-rise and more expensive housing there, while simultaneously selling surplus housing on the outskirts to displaced residents, who will have to take out higher-interest mortgages again. A Krasnoyarsk lawyer expressed similar thoughts. Vasily Yuryev and a Samara activist Svetlana StepanovaThese regions have their own nuances in how the KRT is implemented, but they share a common thread: the state, represented by local authorities, doesn't ask citizens whether they want to relocate; it confronts them with the reality of forced relocation.

"The KRT problem is a nationwide one. Developers have gained a tool that allows them to destroy not only cities but also lives, evicting people who don't want to leave their apartments. They're practically throwing them out onto the street. You can't take away people's right to live where they want." — concluded Gulenkova.

Activists from St. Petersburg have created an interactive map of "hot spots" where residents are protesting the demolition of their homes. In addition to the above-mentioned cities, it already includes Petrozavodsk and Arkhangelsk, Moscow's Bibirevo, Fryazino, and Shchukino, Nizhny Novgorod, the Tambov town of Rasskazovo, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Abakan, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

P.S. The "advent" of the KRT in the city does not automatically mean the end of infill development and other construction programs. For example, while this article was going to press, public hearings were held in Ryazan regarding the construction of four 20- and 25-story buildings on the site of five two-story barracks. The population density after their construction will exceed the upper limit of the norm, and green space will be below the lower limit. Locals indignantly asked where children from the new buildings will go to school if the two old schools are overcrowded. A representative of the developer, without a hint of humor, said: saidthat the appearance of high-rise buildings in the neighborhood will not change the population.