http://www.fontanka.ru/2010/12/09/113/
Final Decision Made to Move Okhta Center
December 9, 2010 17:23
A final decision has been made to move the Okhta Public and Business Center [Okha Center] to another site. [Petersburg] Governor Valentina Matviyenko informed journalists about this before her appearance at the Congress of Saint Petersburg Builders. Negotiations with Gazprom over this question have already been completed. A new site for the future office building has not been determined: the governor proposed that the public decide this question along with the city authorities in order to avoid a repetition of the controversy, but also to avoid the city’s losing such a major investor.
In addition, the decision was made today to annul the [city government’s September 2009] decree [allowing construction in excess of the zoned height regulations] for the land plot on the Okhta Cape. “We have decided to put this matter to rest,” the governor explained.
On December 3, Valentina Matviyenko had already announced the possibility that the project would be moved to another site. “The project can be reattached to another site – I don’t see anything dramatic or problematic about this. The city needs projects and investments of this sort – here we’re all in agreement – but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take into account the opinion of the other segment of the population, although it is in the minority. Negotiations with Gazprom about moving the site have long been under way, and I hope that a final decision will be made in a calm manner,” said Valentina Matviyenko.
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Our heartfelt congratulations to everyone who has fought against the tower, however and wherever they have fought. To get a sense of what that struggle has looked like, see our previous posts on the subject on this blog, the special issue of our newspaper, Whose City Is This?, and, of course, our video musical The Tower: A Songspiel. Please also see our comrade Vesna Tomse’s recent (and excellent) animated film, The Tale of Gazprom Tower.
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