Odesa deputies did not include the Summer Theater in the reconstruction project

Odesa deputies did not include the territory of the Summer Theater in the project for the maintenance and reconstruction of the City Garden, which was approved by the executive committee of the Odesa City Council on January 18.

This was reported by Olha Kvasnytska, a deputy of the Odesa City Council.

According to her, the project covers only part of the City Garden, despite the fact that the Summer Theater is an integral part of it. Kvasnytska reminded that the City Garden has the status of a monument of landscape art, and the relevant accounting documentation was defended by the community back in 2017 and approved by the expert commission at the Ministry of Culture. According to these documents, the territory of the Summer Theater is part of the monument, and the development of projects for individual sites only contradicts the monument protection legislation.

The deputy noted that the actual exclusion of the Summer Theater from the project creates risks of further destruction of the historic space. According to her, tiles are now appearing on this territory instead of green spaces, and small architectural forms are replacing the cultural space. She believes that this approach actually allows tenants to continue to change the territory without regard to its status as a monument.

Olha Kvasnytska also said that she had warned the city council officials about the inadmissibility of submitting documents that contradict the decisions of the expert council of the Ministry of Culture of December 2017. In her opinion, ignoring these decisions could set a dangerous precedent for the entire cultural heritage of Odesa.

The deputy insists that all project documentation should be brought in line with the real status of the City Garden, and the Summer Theater should be considered an integral part of it, not a separate site for commercial use.

The scandal surrounding the Summer Theater arose after the decision of the Odesa City Council in September 2016. Back then, during the tenth session, the deputies approved the allocation of a land plot on the territory of the Summer Theater in the City Garden.

In June 2017, the developer received a declaration for the construction of an administrative building with retail and recreational facilities. Subsequently, Odesa activists published a document that showed that 109 trees were to be cut down on the territory of the Summer Theater. These plans caused outrage among the townspeople, and on November 18, Odesa residents held a mass protest against the development of the historic part of the City Garden.

Анна Бальчінос