Height Developments in early 2009

Spring 2009 saw many developments surrounding the Rules on Land Use and Construction. In February, the Legislative Assembly passed the Rules (4 February); City Governor Matvienko signed them on 20 February.

It is a great step forward for the city that the Rules have been passed; they provide the city with standard zoning rules that govern any construction project. However, several scandals have persisted surrounding the height of a range of sites.

For example, the construction company LEK received retroactive permission to leave its large residential complex “Imperial” unchanged just days before the Rules were to go into effect on 9 March 2009. (The complex is located just north of the Novodevichy Monastery, along Moskovsky Avenue between metro stations Frunzenskaya and Moskovskie Vorota; see image in post below.)

In keeping with general city policy and sections of the Rules, an architectural firm was charged with conducting a study of whether the building’s height would affect the visual environment around the Novodevichii Monastery (St. Petersburg’s overall historical architectural appearance and skyline have been designated as objects of conservation). The building’s final height of 73 meters more than doubles the height that eventually made it into the Rules for this district of the city – 35 meters. In April 2009, that firm was scapegoated for the final result. On 6 March 2009, city officials decided that it was most reasonable to let the construction company complete the buildings, partly because many of the apartments located in the top floors of the new buildings had been presold.

On the positive side for those who see new tall buildings as a damaging interruption to the city’s appearance and infrastructure (see post from 8 June), the Legislative Assembly did vote in late January to reduce the permitted heights for at least 78 proposed new vertical “dominants” around the city (see post below with new PZZ maps for the same locations shown on 8 June).

On 23 June 2009, new procedures were approved for obtaining exceptions to the Rules. This is meant to be similar to common procedures in the U.S. for obtaining variances to codes and ordinances. In Petersburg, clearly the most urgent departure that developers want approved is a building height that exceeds what the Rules permit. Reports suggest that developers for some 150 projects would like such a variance… More on this when I have processed the information from various sources.