Land Use and Development Rules will retain housing in residential districts of Moscow

On 28 March, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin approved Land Use and Development Rules at a meeting of the Moscow Government Presidium.

Land Use and Development Rules (LUDR) is the second most important city planning regulatory instrument after the Master Plan. LUDR are applicable for all areas of the city, except Troitsk, Shcherbinka and the Skolkovo Innovation Center. Pursuant to the document, 83% of Moscow territory within the «old» city borders shall be subject to LUDR and considered preservation urban areas.

«Since November of last year, Moscow residents have been actively discussing this document. During this time, general approaches aimed at preservation of the existing buildings and natural sites, while promoting development of the city industries, have been developed,» said Sergey Sobyanin.

«From December 2016 to March 2017, public hearings on the project of LUDR in relation to the territory within the old borders were held. More than 100 thousand comments and suggestions were received from the city residents in the course of discussions. They were submitted and considered; each of them got a reasoned response,» said the Chairman of the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Urban Development, Yuliana Knyazhevskaya, at the Government Presidium meeting.

Moscow authorities have developed five main principles of urban planning: preservation of the existing buildings and private housing, development of industrial zones for the purpose of science, care for natural and cultural heritage sites, and land use limitation under LUDR.

The rules specify the permitted methods of construction, its density, number of floors in buildings and many other things. The full account was taken of the interests of great number of stakeholders. «LUDR provide answers to the questions: „Is construction allowed in this area?“, „What can be build?“, „What are the construction parameters?“ The rules provide the citizens and investors with credible information about construction in every district of the city. In addition, they will prevent uncontrolled development. The rules are simple and clear, they must be available at all city resources. Changes to the document can be made only in coordination with Muscovites,» said Yuliana Knyazhevskaya.

Moreover, LUDR take into account renovation of industrial zones not for residential housing, but for science purposes, development of production, innovation technologies, which involves creation of additional jobs. As far as private housing is concerned, LUDR provide for adequate construction parameters: density is about 4-5 thousand square meters per hectare, the maximum height is 15 meters.

After adoption of the rules, for the first time the relevant and reliable information on permitted land use and real property will be open and accessible to all citizens—the document will be available at city information resources.