Tag Archives: rezoning

Russian administration plans to nullify land category divisions

“Administration of Russia plans to introduce nullification of land category divisions” (“Pravitel’stvo Rossii planiruet provesti otmenu deleniya zemel’ na kategorii”), World Heritage Sites, 2 March 2010. 27 July 2010 http://rpmira.org/news/468.

Explication of new legislative reforms, which will most notably end land classifications (i.e. agricultural; urban; industrial; special reservations; forest reserves; water reserves; land reservoir).  The goal of the new law is to decrease the pressure of bureaucratic corruption in land transactions and rezoning processes.  The 52 items amending current legislation should go into action in 2011.  In place of the complicated system of land categories, a Ministry of Economic Development representative says, the structure of allocated use for land plots will be strengthened through renewed territorial planning and city zoning plans.  The law will also impose penal tax rates for enterprises sitting on unused state lands, which administrators hope will push these enterprises to either use or dispose of the lands, removing the burden of “blocked lands,” which otherwise would be well utilized.

Another aim of the legislation is to increase transparency of land transactions and accessibility: information about available plots will be posted on the land Cadastre’s new online database, and all land will be required to be sold at auction.  The distribution of permissions to build on land should be simplified, and will be overseen by the administration.