Construction Near Sophia of Kyiv and Kyiv Cave Monastery to Be Prohibited
The Kyiv City State Administration has developed a draft resolution to prohibit strictly new construction in the historic center of Kyiv.
Ukrainian Truth reported that according to the document, construction will be prohibited in the buffer zones of Sophia of Kyiv and Kyiv Cave Monastery and Pecherski slopes.
This will apply to new constructions and reconstruction and heightening of the existing buildings but will not apply to the restoration of monuments of cultural heritage and construction of objects vital for the life activity of the city, for instance, pipelines and networks.
The protection zone will reach from the pedestrian bridge to the Boulevard of Friendship of Peoples and will cover Staronavodnytska, Leiptsigska, Mazepy, Hrushevskoho Streets, European and Independence Squares, Khreshchatyk and Prorizna Streets, Yaroslaviv Val, Big and Small Zhytomyrska Streets, Lviv Square, adjacent territory of the National Museum of History of Ukraine and St. Volodymyr’s Hill.
The explanatory note to the document says that the draft resolution was developed in view of numerous requests of the residents and the resolution of UNESCO.
At its 36th session, UNESCO called Ukraine to impose a moratorium on construction in the buffer zones. Otherwise, Sophia of Kyiv and Kyiv Cave Monastery can be excluded from the list of the world heritage of UNESCO.
According to lawyer Maryna Soloviova who secured in court the suspension of the construction of a multi-storied building in the buffer zone of Sophia of Kyiv, it is high time to pass a legislative act to prevent new allocations of land plots and annul the previous decisions on allocations.
The head of the Standing Committee on Culture and Tourism of the Kyiv City Council, Oleksandr Bryhinets, stated that his committee supported the draft resolution even though he considers it late.
