Dates:
March 25-26, 2023
According to state norms, there shall be many times more parking spaces in the residential estate than there are now. But property developers and authorities issuing permits ignore these requirements.
A 25-storey UNO City House residential estate with 263 apartments was put into operation in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv on October 22. For the large apartment house, price for one-room apartments in which start from 2.64 million UAH, the property developer - IBK Obrii Company - has provided underground parking, but only for 24 parking spaces.
This residential estate, where active construction works started in February 2020, is located at Olena Teliga str., 25. Babin Yar Memorial Park and the Dorogozhychi Metro are located across the road. The area surrounding this estate is densely built up with five-seven-storey buildings of the Soviet-era.
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There are no optional parking lots in the immediate vicinity of the new building.
It is obvious that after the settlement of the house, in which more than 95% of apartments are already sold, the territory adjoining to it will be filled with cars of new residents. UBR.ua tried to figure out how this could happen.
How many parking spaces should there be
In a conversation with UBR.ua, real estate expert Victoriya Bereshchak explained that the number of parking spaces in the UNO City residential estate does not meet the norms of State Construction Regulations (DBN, Ukr. – ДБН). The expert said that according to these regulations the number of parking spaces in the building shall be determined based on apartments with one room, as well as two or more.
In the central part of the city (which includes Shevchenkivskyi district) a ratio of 0.5 shall be applied to one-room apartments. At the same time a ratio of 1 shall be applied to two-room and bigger apartments. If we consider the area near the Dorogozhychi Metro not as a central urban area, then for one-room apartments the ratio remains unchanged, and for others it shall be reduced to 0.8.
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Even if UNO City consisted only of one-room apartments, parking lot with 131 spaces had to be added to this estate. However, Bereshchak notes, based on the plan and number of floors of the residential estate, it has about 149 one-room apartments. Another 84 apartments have two rooms, 26 - three rooms. This residential estate also has four two-level apartments with four rooms.
Based on this, if we refer the location of the residential estate to the central part of Kyiv city, it should provide for 189 parking spaces, and 166 if not to the central part.
However, Bereshchak emphasizes that only parking spaces for the residents of the estate are taken into account in these calculations.
"According to the DSP, the residential estate must provide parking spaces for guests. Their number must be at least 15% of the parking spaces for residents", - she noted.
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That is, in the case of Uno City residential estate in addition to parking for residents, the property developer had to provide from 25 to 28 parking spaces for guests (depending on whether the Dorogozhychi Metro area is considered central or not).
What can justify the property developer
Bereshchak suggested that one of the possible reasons for the low number of parking spaces in the residential estate may be the fact that the property developer IBK Obrii "entered" the project only in 2016. Prior to that, the construction of a residential building on the site at Olena Teliga str., 15 was repeatedly planned, but was canceled each time.
Even in Soviet-era, the site was not built due to the discovery of the bones of victims by the constructors. Probably, executions happened here during the WWII.
In 2005, the Kyiv City Council approved the construction of a 25-storey building on this land plot. It also provided for underground parking.
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Construction works that were ordered by Alimpex-Mertinger LLC and contracted by Trust-Kyivmiskbud, started in 2008 and were to be completed in 2010. Though, due to the financial crisis, it was never completed. Only the foundation, the ground floor frame and the construction of the underground car park were erected.
Thus, "ISK Obrii", having ransomed the unfinished construction in 2016, continued developing the already started project.
However, the resolution of the Kyiv City Council, which allowed the start of construction for Alimpex-Mertinger, LLC, says, according to the 3m2 publication, that in the project of a residential estate "it is necessary to provide permanent storage of vehicles (except open parking lots), in a number not less than the number of apartments (clause 3 of the decision of the Kyiv City Council as of January 27, 2005 №86/2662).
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Whether this decision was changed and, if so, why it is not clear.
Representatives of IBK Obrii refused to comment to UBR.ua the reason for the low number of parking spaces in the UNO City residential estate.
Why was the residential estate construction project approved
At the same time, Bereshchak notes that the supervisory bodies had to check the compliance of the residential complex with the DSP regulations for the number of parking spaces before approving the design documents.
"I believe that there could be no reason for reducing the number of parking spaces in the project. The property developer could have made reference to the ban on the construction of parking lots over metro tunnels. But in this case it is a ridiculous argument. Therefore, I do not know how the property developer explained to controlling bodies why they have so few parking places”, – said Bereshchak.
UBR.ua reached out to the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Development of Ukraine (SIAUD, Ukr. – ДІАМ), which has been recently established instead of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (SACI, Ukr. – ДАБІ) for comment.
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The media office of the department confirmed the receipt of the request. But at the time of publication of the material they did not send a response.
After all, the new settlers of UNO City residential estate and their neighbors in the adjacent houses will soon have to face an acute shortage of parking spaces for their cars. Victoria Bereshchak said that, if desired, a multi-level above-ground parking lot within walking distance of the new building can be built in order to solve the problem.
In turn, SV Development Company analyst Serhiy Kostetskyi told UBR.ua that after passing the construction inspection, signing all approval documents with government agencies, the property developer is deprived of obligations for developing the infrastructure of the adjacent territory..
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The expert also expressed the opinion that at present the DSP regulations in Ukraine are more "advisory in nature and optional".
"In case if the house has received all permits for conducting construction works, the property developer no longer bears any responsibility and no claims can be made to him regarding parking. It's like asking why you didn't build a kindergarten? " - commented Kostetskyi to UBR.ua.
Private building inspections might help
For his part, the President of the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine (CBU), former Deputy Minister of Regional Development Lev Partskhaladze in a conversation with UBR.ua could not find a probable reason why the project of residential estate with such a low number of parking spaces could be approved during the construction inspection – at the level of SACI.
He believes that in case if you now file a complaint to the supervisory authority and ask for verification of compliance with the DSP regulations, then it will be at least carried out. However, it is almost impossible to bring to justice the experts who submitted the documents for approval.
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Partskhaladze believes that it is necessary to wait for the adoption of the draft law No. 5655 "On Modification of Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning Reforming of Sphere of Town-Planning Activity" (or "On Reforming the SACI") in order to globally correct the situation regarding the ignorance of DSP regulations by property developers.
The President of the CBU said that the document provides for the creation of private architectural and construction inspections that will be criminally liable for their decisions.
Up to a quarter of houses on the market are without parking
At the same time, Victoriya Bereshchak notes that the situation in Kyiv has recently improved with the construction of new buildings with parking spaces. According to her, in the residential estates that are currently being put into operation, the level of parking provided to residents may not reach the "desired" 80%. Though, this number exceeds 55%.
There are no more that 25% of residential estates on the market, that, as in the case of UNO City, have a critically low number of parking spaces. However, such projects are often uncompetitive if compared to others. According to the expert, this indicator is much lower than it was four years ago.
"In most cases, in case if now the residential estate is put into operation with a critically low number of parking spaces, these are estates from the mass market, budget segment, that were designed before 2019", - Bereshchak said.