Save the Odessa coast
On July 13, at 13:45, the Commercial Court of Odessa Region (29 Shevchenko Ave.) will consider the case against Varda Plus and the Odessa City Council on declaring the land lease agreement illegal and invalid. In September 2018, the Odessa City Council permits Varda Plus LLC to develop a land management and allocation plan for an area of 80 acres at 1/5 French Boulevard. This is the territory of the beach of the former sanatorium. Six months later, local deputies, headed by mayor Gennady Trukhanov, approve this project at a session and give 68 acres for rent to Varda Plus for 10 years. Land was allegedly allocated for the operation and maintenance of non-residential buildings of the yacht club. Already in September 2019, the city department of state architectural and construction control issues a permit for the construction work of the yacht club with a rescue station, rest rooms, places for sports, a catering establishment and a boathouse. But everything changes dramatically in two months, and a visualization appears in the local media, where instead of a yacht club right on the shore, between the Health Route and the sea, they plan to build a multi-story hotel. It will consist of three blocks. Block “A” is a three-story building with a rooftop pool, block “B” is a ten-story residential building with parking, block “C” is ten four-story private houses with access to a private beach. Moreover, the maximum distance from the boundary of the site to the water edge is approximately 22 meters.Today the Varda Plus company appears in almost all courts of various instances. The pre-trial investigation is conducted by the Odessa prosecutor's office, which believes that the construction area is 20 times the area of the object, which was supposed to be restored initially. The actions of officials of the mayor's office of Odessa and the developer qualified according to Art. 356 (arbitrariness), part 2 of article 197-1 (unauthorized occupation of the land and unauthorized construction), part 1 of article 364-1 (abuse of power by an official of a legal entity of private law), part 1 of article 364 (abuse of power or official position) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. At the end of February this year, the Prosecutor’s Office appealed to the court with a request to terminate the lease. The district administrative court banned Varda Plus from carrying out work on the site. However, in March, preparatory work began there. Then the Prosecutor's Office of Odessa region handed over the suspicion of non-compliance with the court order to the head of the Varda Plus company. But this did not stop them. Already in June at night on the coast began to import heavy equipment and drilling machines.
