I.Metshin about the coastal zone of Kazanka: “There will a be park of 74 hectares, no more residential development is planned here”

74 hectares of the coastal zone of the Kazanka river along Gavrilov street will have the status of a specially protected natural area, there will be no new residential development here. A children's municipal hospital will be built on the territory of 6 hectares. This was stated today by the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin at the meeting with journalists and bloggers, which was held at the site of the future park.

The development of a strategy for the urban-ecological structure of Kazan has shown that citizens of Novo-Savinovsky district have lack of green areas in comparison with other Kazan residents.

“The pandemic has made some changes. We have understood that residents need public spaces, parks, and squares even more than we thought. Therefore, we decided to assign this zone the status of a specially protected natural area. The park will spread to 74 hectares, and there will be no more residential development here. I do not promise that a landscaped public space will appear here tomorrow, but we are launching the work”, - I.Metshin noted. The head of the city reminded that on the territory of 3 thousand hectares along the Kazanka River, it is planned to create the first urban national park in Russia.

According to the Mayor, this green zone with the participation of ecologists and biologists will turn into landscaped park-with playgrounds, recreation trails and protected areas of a valuable ecosystem.

Ilsur Metshin noted that earlier all this territory was included into the zone for residential development. Now the investors who were planning to develop residential building on the territory, have been proposed to use another site.

There is no detailed project of the park yet. All the issues will be discussed with environmentalists, activists, and citizens. The park on Gavrilov street will be one of 12 parks that will be created as part of the implementation of the Kazanka development strategy.

The second decision made by the Mayor's Office on this territory is also related to the health. At one of the wasteland adjacent to Gavrilov street, with an area of 6 hectares, it is planned to create Children’s Republican Hospital-2-an analog of the municipal hospital №7, but for children. “We see that for rehabilitation, it is important for children to have an opportunity to go out and walk. It affects the health. And children will have such an opportunity here”, -  the head of the city explained.

Ilsur Metshin reminded that in 2012, no one thought about imporved public spaces. There were 300 thousand cars for 200 thousand trees in the city at that time. This is how the “Green record” and “100 squares” projects were created. “Together with activists and students of the Architectural Academy, we started this work, and as a result, a large Federal project has grown out of a small step, which was headed by Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov. To date, there are 98 public spaces in Kazan with a total area of 412 hectares. In addition, during this time, we planted 500 thousand trees and shrubs, and we continue this work”, – said the Mayor of Kazan.