Property developers are racing to build up prime land in Moscow’s leafy outskirts with plans that involve razing entire villages and felling acres of forest.
Now determined locals are fighting back to stop the developers in their tracks and preserve the environment, local heritage and their homes.
And with some success, such as in the village of Vostochnaya Perlovka, a settlement ranging from simple wooden cottages to roomy brick family homes with some 4,000 residents, northeast of the capital.
Local authorities announced a plan to demolish all of its 600 houses to allow a property developer to build high-rise blocks there, increasing the population to 25,000 people.
Horrified at the prospect of losing their beloved homes, the residents immediately teamed up to campaign against the demolition.
“If the project goes through, the population density of this area will be more than 13,000 people per square kilometre — more than twice that of Hong Kong,” which has close to 6,800 people per square kilometre, said lawyer Andrei Yumashev, who represents the residents.
He urged the property company, at the very least, to discuss the details of its plans for Vostochnaya Perlovka with locals.
“I couldn’t live in a concrete building,” said Viktor Karachun, one of the coordinators of the campaign, who works as a company’s commercial director.
“Here, I have a large wooden house and an apple orchard. I have no problem parking and my children can spend the whole day outside.”
He published an online petition in July 2016 against the planned development by local company Zemelniye Resursy which has gained 2,000 signatures.
But neither the petition nor dozens of letters and protests made any difference, forcing residents to go to courts.
In December, the Supreme Court responded by reducing the scale of the project — banning the developers from building 20-storey blocks and massive shopping centres and reducing the number of residents to 10,000 — something the locals view as a considerable victory.
With an already bulging population of at least 12 million, Moscow is a magnet for the upwardly mobile from all over Russia and the former Soviet Union.
But commuting to central Moscow for work while living in the surrounding region is a more affordable option for most.
Just six kilometres (4 miles) from Vostochnaya Perlovka, residents of another small settlement called Stroitel, or Builder, are fighting the felling of 255 acres (103 hectares) of forest, known as Chelyuskinsky Wood, for house building.
Residents accuse the authorities of illegally selling the forest to a Moscow property developer called Novaya Zemlya, which wants to build a new district with 20,000 inhabitants. — AFP
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