Protesters against the development of a park in Yekaterinburg turned to Putin. Video

Citizens protesting against the development of a park named after the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol in Yekaterinburg turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin. They do not want the green zone to be reduced in order to create a new building for the Olympic Reserve School.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich, we are writing to you regarding the systematic destruction of the park of the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol. When you set the goal of improving the quality of the urban environment, they again want to build a park here. The authorities have been taking it piece by piece from local residents for almost 25 years. Over the years, the area of ​​the park has decreased by about a third,” a URA.RU correspondent quotes the text of the appeal.

The picket against the development of the park took place on the afternoon of December 1

Photo: Ilya Moskovets © URA.RU

Residents accused local authorities of (allegedly) misleading people by promising a moratorium on the development of the park and carrying out its improvement. The protesters in their appeal stated that the building for student-athletes could be built in the Academicheskiy district or in the Novokoltsovsky microdistrict, and not on the site of the recreational area. About 30 people took part in recording the message.

That same disputed site, in the area of ​​Chkalov and Shaumyan streets, does not formally belong to the park – in 2017, the Sverdlovsk Ministry of State Property transferred it to the school. In September 2023, the city commission on land use and development rules approved changing the status of the land from TOP-1 (parks) to C-2 (zone of secondary and higher vocational education facilities and scientific complexes). The mayor’s office then submitted the draft resolution for public discussion. 284 participants spoke out against it (132 were in favor), but their comments were not taken into account.