'Italian Quarter' opposed by citizens canceled in Brest
Last year, the Euroradio reported in the "Italian quarter" story in Brest. The conflict situation arose a few years ago. Territorial square of the Mitskevich, Soviet, Kamsamolskaya and Pushkinskaya streets appealed to the Italian firm. Foreigners planned to implement here an investment project. The city authorities allowed the construction, but there was a lot of questions from the local residents.
On this occasion, in August 2014 there was organized a public discussion, and the disgruntled residents even staged a spontaneous rally at the city executive committee.
Now the Brest City Executive Committee officially reports that in the course of the project the investor has repeatedly violated the terms of the investment agreement. On November 16, the Brest Regional Executive Committee decided to "Terminate the investment agreement concluded with a joint limited liability company Office Center".
Euroradio spoke with Iryna Tkachova, an active participant of protests against the construction of the "Italian Quarter" near her house. According to her, the investor simply did not have enough money to resettle residents.
"The contract was terminated due to the complete financial insolvency. They (the representatives of the investor - Euroradio) undertook the first phase of the resettlement: there was a very large number of apartments - 27. For Brest it was unprecedented, especially in the central area of the city. They resettled a half of them, but coulf not "pull off" the rest -- there were no funds," she said.
Most families living on the site planned for the construction of the "Italian Quarter" were not satisfied with the proposals of the investor. The people were confused about their property assessment procedure. For example, at a hearing in executive committee it turned out that the assessment was only done in 2 apartments. It is still unknown wow rest of the apartments were estmimated.
Iryna Tkachova said that this year the investor already made some concessions and improved the proposal. Almost half of the families were resettled in new apartments in the city center. The rest kept to their homes until the last moment.
Iryna Tkachova said that the termination of contracts is definitely a victory, but the bad feeling still remained.
Tkachova: "This, unfortunately, has nothing to do with the origin of our protest: the destruction of cultural and historical part of the city by the "new construction" - concrete and glass blocks. If they had money, they would build the same kind of buildings all of the central quarter. They were not bothered by anything. Yes, we won, but only because we did not leave them in peace for a moment."
Using the house #22 in Mitskevich street as an example, Iryna said that for several years people literally "lived on suitcases."
"The fact is that this house has been burdened with restrictions on distribution of assets since July 2010. And now imagine that for 6 years people have been unable to do any repairs, or lay any communications ... And what are the guarantees that if people want to put their homes in order, there will not appear after a while another "hunter" who would wish to build something there?"
What will happen with the empty apartments, which the inhabitants left for new homes, is still unknown.
Photo: realbrest.by
