Legal stumbling block

A large developer is trying to challenge the decision of the St. Petersburg authorities on a recreational zone in the Shuvalovsky forest. At stake, they say, are plots of land that once belonged to the funeral king’s land bank. Igor Minakov. What do builders, city administration and local residents share?

Luxury North

Back in the mid-2000s, the media actively wrote that the main assets of the king of the funeral business of the Northern capital, Igor Minakov, were considered the Nordest Group and the St. Petersburg Ritual Company. However, the information that his structures own a substantial “land bank”, which includes vast territories in the Primorsky and Vyborg regions, was also not a special secret.

In the fall of 2018, it became known that Smolny allowed the construction of low-rise multi-apartment residential buildings on Minakov’s lands in Pargolovo, which previously belonged to the category of individual residential construction. In parallel with this information, another one appeared – the Smolny commission rejected an application for the construction of 300 thousand square meters of housing near the Novoorlovsky reserve (according to unofficial information, these lands also belonged to structures associated with Minakov).

That same fall, local communities on social networks began to write that the authorities of St. Petersburg supposedly intend to protect the northern areas from the negative impact of future large developments on lands that once belonged to the funeral king. It was stated that for this purpose, a huge piece of land, previously intended for the construction of apartment buildings, would be transferred to a recreational function – the green zone would become a barrier between the industrial zone and existing residential buildings.

Local residents then actively protested and wrote the following on social networks:

Nearby is the Kolomyagi industrial zone, where the Metrostroy Concrete Concrete Plant, a bus depot, a boiler house of the State Unitary Enterprise TEK, a furniture factory, a gas station and many other enterprises are located, from which the air does not become fresh at all… If plans for the construction of further houses are implemented, then from the nearest plant The reinforced concrete products will be about 200 meters away from them. There will be nothing to breathe.

The story became very loud because at the beginning of 2023 the head of the Investigative Committee became interested in the possible development of the Shuvalovsky Forest Alexander Bastrykin. He was complained to by local residents who had previously lost another lawsuit challenging changes made to urban planning documentation, after which they filed a complaint with Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) .

In December 2023, the St. Petersburg parliament adopted an amendment to preserve the Shuvalovsky Forest, on the initiative of one deputy. The people’s representatives decided to preserve the forest in the north of the city. We were talking about two plots with a total area of ​​13.86 hectares south of the Shuvalovsky quarry – next to the Shuvalovsky residential complex. Until December 2023, they were designated in the general plan as a zone for housing construction.

Suing the governor

The owner of the plots was already listed as Seven Suns Development, which had previously built high-rise residential complexes in St. Petersburg. But the deputies put an end to the developer’s business plans.

So, last year, the City Planning Commission of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg recommended that deputies of the city parliament adopt an amendment to the new master plan of the Northern capital, according to which a recreational zone (P2) would be established on the territory of the Shuvalovsky Forest instead of a development zone.

The other day it became known that the City Court of St. Petersburg began to consider the claim of Specialized Developer Vector LLC (the company is part of Seven Suns Development) against Governor Alexander Beglov and the city Legislative Assembly. The developer demands that the same amendment to the new city general plan establishing a recreational zone on the territory of the so-called Shuvalovsky Forest at the intersection of Parachute Street and Shuvalovsky Prospekt be declared invalid. The plaintiff still wants to develop the remaining green corner with apartment buildings on 14 hectares owned by the company. These plots, as it became known, previously belonged to certain individuals. According to some information, they were sold by the heirs of billionaire Igor Minakov.

The plaintiffs believe that procedural violations were committed during the adoption of the general plan. Namely: during the second reading of the bill, two amendments were considered to establish the P2 zone in the Shuvalovsky Forest, but the deputies accepted only one. And according to the protocol there should have been two. On this basis, Vector LLC considers the regulatory act illegal and demands that it be declared invalid in part“changes in the functional purpose of two land plots.”

The plaintiff also believes that these amendments conflict with the Regulations on Territorial Planning and also cause losses to the company. Of course, one can understand the suffering of the builders – billions are at stake, and here is some pathetic piece of forest that miraculously survived despite the efforts of previous developers. According to some estimates, this land was worth at the time of sale in the area 5 billion rubles.

Litigation for land

Representatives of the Legislative Assembly also voiced their position in court. The lawyer stated that the owner has the right to use the plots in any other way permitted by law; transfer to a recreational zone does not mean that the state has seized them for its own benefit. Independent experts believe that the developer, of course, missed the mark with the purchase, and now something needs to be done with the plots. Despite the fact that a decision may be made at the next meeting of the City Court (it will take place on April 9), this does not mean at all that this judicial story will end quickly. Most likely, plaintiffs and defendants will litigate all the way to the Supreme Court.

After all, according to the law, the construction of sports facilities, sanatoriums, and tourist centers is permissible in such a zone. Residential buildings are not allowed.

The constructed house will immediately be recognized as an unauthorized construction and the city authorities will simply issue a demolition order. In theory, the city authorities may provide the company with some other plots for residential development. But now in St. Petersburg, within the city limits, there are practically no such sites. All major developers have built the first line of land in the Leningrad region, located relatively close to metro stations.

But if in this situation the governor and the Legislative Assembly sided with the local residents, then in the story with the development of Shuvalovsky Park, the townspeople were out of luck. In November 2023, the city court refused to satisfy the claim of the initiative group of Pargolovo residents against the governor and the Legislative Assembly. St. Petersburg residents opposed the development of the park and demanded that the relevant provisions of the law on the general plan and the Rules for land use and city development be declared ineffective. As they say, the conversation was again about the lands that were once part of the “land bank” of the funeral king Minakov.