I.Metshin: “Local regulations and land use rules are tactical documents for the Master plan implementation”

In November 2020, it is planned to hold public debate on the project of the land use and development rules. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, noted that Kazan is one of the first Russian cities to break through the barrier between the old regulatory framework and the future. The Mayor noted that the new document, along with the already approved Local standards of urban planning design, would become the basis for the implementation of the General Plan of the city.

“The rules of land use and development are part of the urban planning framework of our city, the development of the city along with the General Plan, with local normative urban planning, - Ilsur Metshin said. - Local regulations and land use rules are tactical documents for the Master plan implementation, and the main requirement for these documents is accuracy and unambiguity, they should become working documents for city authorities, as well as owners and investors”.

Timur Kadyrov, deputy chief architect of the city, told about the preparation of the project of new land use and development rules at the Business Monday at the Executive Committee of Kazan.

Work on the project was carried out alongside with the work on the General Plan, which was adopted this February. The most intensive stage of completion began after the approval of the General Plan, as the rules are a tool for its implementation, Timur Kadyrov emphasized.

The current land use and development rules were based on a map created in 1998. To date, more than 500 changes have been made to the current version of the document.

The final list includes 27 territorial zones. The new version of the rules inherits the main zones that are traditional for urban planning documents, grouped by categories: residential, public and business, industrial, and recreational.

Along with the map of zones, the urban planning regulations are also approved as part of the rules for zones, it consists of the types of permitted use of the land plots. Urban planning regulations manage such parameters as minimum and maximum size of land, land development ratio, height and number of storeys, spacing from the boundaries of the land. According to Timur Kadyrov, one of the most important innovations of the new version of the land use rules, in comparison with the current one, is the establishment of parameters for all types of permitted use of land plots, and not only residential buildings.

Also, one of the innovations of the document was the introduction of territorial zones that take into account and stimulate all the potential diversity of the urban environment. Among them: public-business, public-residential and public-industrial.

One of the innovations is the appearance of an actual use zone, which requires the mandatory development of a territory planning project. “Actual use means that the types of permitted use are those that have already been implemented, and in the same parameters, in accordance with the United State Register of Taxpayers data”, - T.Kadyrov said. After the development of the project, the territory is subject to re-zoning.

A new mechanism for urban regulation in the project of the land use rules was the use of the concept of “territorial subzones”. During the work, three main groups of subzones were identified, each of which is aimed at achieving its own goals and implements its own unique functionality, Timur Kadyrov noted.

Now it is necessary to coordinate the project with the Tatarstan Committee for the protection of cultural heritage sites, as well as conduct a specialized commission and public debate, with following corrections if necessary. Further, the document will be adopted at the session of the Kazan City Duma, after which the territorial zones will pass a cadastral registration.

Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin requested for public hearings, taking into account the sanitary and epidemiological situation. “We need to discuss the rules of land use and development in the new realities, so we need to do this with the help of modern means of communication with safety for participants”, - said I.Metshin.