(The warehouse buildings of the department. PHOTO: Alexander Avdeev/Facebook)
Odesa reported manipulations with the General Plan and the actual failure of the monument protection system. It turned out that the problem is not in the documents, but in corruption, sabotage, and lack of professional city management.
This was stated by Olga Kvasnytska, a member of the Odesa City Council, who criticized the city authorities' approach to urban planning and the preservation of cultural heritage.
Her statement was made against the backdrop of the destruction of a historic building at 10 Frantsuzsky Boulevard. According to the deputy, the statements of officials, including representatives of the military administration, about the need to update the General Plan as a tool for protecting heritage are manipulative. She emphasized that the new document alone will not solve the problem, as the key mechanisms for protecting monuments in the city are not actually working.
Kvasnytska claims that systematic work on urban planning documentation in Odesa actually stopped in 2016. Instead, there is a "behind-the-scenes struggle for influence" in the city that blocks real reforms.
The deputy also drew attention to the decision of 2019, when the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection was merged with other structures. In her opinion, this finally destroyed the institution responsible for the preservation of historical sites. She also criticized the activities of the specialized department, noting that instead of professional work, it focused on public events.
Another critical problem is the lack of basic documents. The city has not yet developed a Management Plan for the UNESCO World Heritage Site, without which it is impossible to create a historical and architectural reference plan. Therefore, any changes to the General Plan, according to the deputy, are a formality that can only legalize chaotic development.
She also stated that monument protection work is being systematically sabotaged: a significant number of objects do not have proper documentation, are not included in the state register, and security contracts are not concluded. Because of this, officials have virtually no control over the condition of historic buildings.
The deputy called the situation with the building on Frantsuzsky Boulevard illustrative: the destruction was possible not because of the imperfect General Plan, but because of the inaction of the responsible authorities.
In her opinion, Odesa needs not new declarations, but concrete steps: restoration of an independent heritage protection system, appointment of professional architects and specialists, creation of basic documents and introduction of responsibility for officials.
Kvasnytska summarized that as long as the city is governed by corrupt mechanisms and "telephone law," no new urban planning documents will be able to save the historical face of Odesa.
Earlier, the head of the Odesa MVA, Serhiy Lysak, said that the destruction of the architectural monument became possible due to the municipality's delay in updating urban planning documents, which has not been done for 10 years.
The demolition of a part of the architectural monument on Frantsuzsky Boulevard in Odesa began on the night of March 23 during an air raid alert. In the morning, activists and government officials arrived at the site, and a commission inspection confirmed the damage to the monument. Odesa has repeatedly lost historic buildings in this way.
Subsequently, the prosecutor's office opened a case over the demolition of the historic building on Frantsuzsky Boulevard. As part of the investigation, law enforcement officers are checking the circumstances of the work on the site, where, among other buildings, the object of historical value is located. A protest was also held against the demolition of the architectural monument.
However, the Department of Culture of the Odesa Regional Administration won an appeal in the case of the cultural heritage sites on Frantsuzsky Boulevard. This is a fundamental case regarding the protection of two local cultural heritage sites located at this address: the brewery building and the warehouses of the local government.
Анна Бальчінос