In the Ukrainian information space, two seemingly contradictory theses can be heard more and more often: "The future belongs to the cities!" and "The village is the cradle of the nation!". Actually, supporters of both statements are right in their own way. During the last century, urbanization in the world is growing at a frantic pace, and most of the most developed countries are highly urbanized also due to the timely study of the interaction of urban and rural settlements and their population.
Today, Ukraine is a moderately urbanized country, where almost 69% of the population are urban dwellers. But at the same time, according to pre-war data, there was a noticeable retreat from urbanization, because Ukrainians began to leave the city with an urbanization rate of 0,33% per year. Over time, this may very well become a positive trend that will boost the economy of the Ukrainian countryside and provide access to environmental resources for former city dwellers. What is the situation now?
Let's figure out how large cities, suburbs and villages interact, how they are affected by migration processes, and is there a permanent conflict in this system?
Why a suburb?
The question of the relevance of studying the suburbs as a separate object has been studied for many years by specialists from various fields of science in the USA, France, Germany and Great Britain. In Ukraine, the issue of the suburbs is still not clearly defined — there are only isolated articles and works by sociologists, economists, and geographers, where separate elements of everyday culture, architecture, and economic development of the suburbs are considered.
Among foreign researchers, the works of American scientists, in particular Robert Fishman, deserve special attention. In the article "Bourgeois Utopias: Visions of Suburbia", he defines the suburb as a territory that reveals the character and spirit of modern civilization.
The book "Bourgeois Utopias: Visions of the Suburbs" (1989). By Robert Fishman
In his work, Fishman is based on the study of the American phenomenon of the suburbs, which, in his opinion, were based on the values of the average family, where the house in the suburbs is the embodiment of the dream of the middle class.
"The suburbs are characterized by special traditions of residential and landscape architecture, it is their complex that distinguishes the suburbs from the city and the countryside," says Robert Fishman. The researcher calls the suburb a bourgeois utopia because of its ideal location and perception, as it is usually devoid of businesses, far from working-class neighborhoods and within green areas.
General plan of the Vlasne Misto project. Visualizations courtesy of Vlasne Misto
"Suburbs are characterized by special traditions of residential and landscape architecture, it is their complex that distinguishes the suburbs from the city and the countryside." — Robert Fishman
Undoubtedly, the American type of suburbs has developed as a peculiar phenomenon, and the conditions of formation, for example, of the Kyiv suburbs are significantly different from the American experience. In Ukraine, trends similar to those described by Fishman have been observed only in the last decade, and they have not yet acquired a mass character.
In general, the development of the suburban zone in Ukraine does not fully correspond to any of the classical models of suburbanization, but rather is a combination of them. The formation of the Ukrainian suburb has absorbed the characteristics of both the Western-type (Western-type), when residents of the city with higher incomes move to the suburban zone in order to find an ecologically and socially safer environment, and the opposite type (reversed Western-type), when to the suburban zone mainly the population with low incomes moves.
This process also directly depends on urbanization, which in our country is uneven across the entire territory: from the highly urbanized regions of Central and Eastern Ukraine to the poorly urbanized regions of the West and North. The unevenness of suburbanization in our country is also caused by the proximity or distance of suburban areas from megacities. Due to the rather fast pace of urbanization, large cities are growing into satellite cities, drawing them into the zone of their influence. By contagion, the nearest villages and rural settlements also fall into the sphere of influence of large cities, which leads to the process of urbanization (The spread of urban forms and living conditions to the countryside. — Ed. note).
The village of Kryukivshchyna, Kyiv region. Photo source: OLX
Given the fact that suburbanization is the next stage of active urbanization, the question of the development of modern suburbs arises more and more often. The objects of such studies are suburban territories, which are either completely absorbed by the city and dissolve in it (an example is the Troyeshchyna district in Kyiv, which was built on the site of former villages), or are transformed into new cottage towns and quarters of the private sector. Gorenichi, Stoyanka, Bilogorodka, Bobrytsia, Dmytrivka, Hnativka, Novi Bezradichi, Kozyn, Khodosivka, Novi Petrivtsi, Gora, Shchaslyve - this is an incomplete list of suburban villages of Kyiv, which have been replenished with new residents, in particular, townspeople, only in the last ten years.
Urban-type settlement Kozyn, Kyiv region. Photo source: bild.ua
These and similar suburbs of a big city deserve separate studies, because their way of life, communications, intercultural interactions, cultural landscape have clear, transformative and different features from a city or a village. At the same time, they are a conditional intermediate link in the "city-village" system and have a direct influence on its formation.
Is there a conflict?
"What does the village look like to us today? Sharowarny is not a highly educated commoner without the modern benefits of civilization and unreasonably hard physical work. This is at best. Or, at worst, a failed Soviet experiment that dragged on, with the destinies of an entire layer of the population in tatters." This thesis Oleksandr Stolovy, chief architect of projects in archimatika and a researcher of the Ukrainian village, who is actively involved in its popularization in the context of cultural and economic development, well reflects the false definition of the village circulated among Ukrainians.
Oleksandr Stolovy, chief architect of projects at archimatika and a researcher of the Ukrainian village
Despite the utopian nature of the theory of the convergence of the city and the village, Soviet ideologues of their time actively drove such different social systems, moral values, norms of coexistence, levels of tolerance and acceptance into the Procrustean bed. As a result, the long-term Soviet propaganda of the social and cultural hierarchy of the city and the village created a certain system of stereotypes, the main theses of which can be heard in everyday life even today.
Galina Bodnar, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Modern History of Ukraine named after M. Hrushevsky Lviv National University named after I. Franka, in her research on migration processes in Galicia, noted that internal migrants in Soviet times mostly understood their "inferiority, unworthiness" when they were among city residents. She notes that for a long time the settlers were inferior residents of Lviv, who had not completely "left" the village, but had not yet "arrived" in the city. Today, this disapproving phrase can often be heard in the variant "they left the village, but the village did not leave them", which, as a rule, is used in a reprehensible context.
In general, the unspoken conflict and confrontation between the city and the countryside established by the Soviet authorities continues even today.
Despite the long-term confrontation, it cannot be denied that over the past 10 years, large cities in Ukraine have significantly transformed the countryside, at least in the suburbs, where "urban and rural" have adapted to each other, although they are in a state of constant contradictions.
Hryniv village, Pustomytivskyi district, Lviv region. Photo source: wikipedia.org
In general, the unspoken conflict and confrontation between the city and the countryside established by the Soviet authorities continues even today. Oleksandr Stolovy devoted one of his recent posts to this topic, where he drew attention to the modern "urban supremacy over the rural."
"Actually, it is difficult to call this episode of the development of Ukraine exactly as a conflict, in my opinion, two sides should be present in the conflict. And here we observe the position of the townspeople in relation to the peasants. Without any backlash. Because the majority position of the citizens in the public space will acquire a monopoly a little more. After all, who today can appeal to the position "The village is everything"? 50+ that is very weakly represented in a social media bubble? Or teenagers who are going through a period of denial in their village and are ready even to "Moscalize" (which, by the way, was used by Russian propaganda in Ukraine, in the market where we did not offer anything counter, but also Ukrainian)?" — Oleksandr thinks.
"The conflict between the city and the countryside is rather a noisy harassment of a part of the population that has been living with the "Stockholm syndrome" for the past 80 years," Oleksandr Stolovy
"In my opinion, the "superiority", which here and there hovers in the public space, has two bases under it. First, it is post-colonial behavior — a huge tail of the unreflected SS past, where the village was a source of agricultural resources, one of the types of concentration camps until the 1970s. Slavery, which ended just 46 years ago. Imagine, for example, that the USA is still struggling with elements of racism in its society. And we have not even begun our journey of rethinking the manifestations of the "city-village" status society. Secondly, there is a lack of awareness of cause-and-effect relationships. After all, the main influx of the urban population in Ukraine is formed from the countryside. And discrediting and ignoring it leads to decline, which we are currently actively observing. It looks quite fatalistic," adds Oleksandr Stolovy.
In today's world, the distinction between urban and rural lifestyles is becoming increasingly blurred. Buying and selling houses and plots of land determine the directions of spatial development for modern urbanism. The development of space by large firms, research centers and the creation of clusters are becoming one of the main methods of regulating the processes of urbanization and the introduction of an urban lifestyle.
In many ways, suburbanites live like city dwellers. Residents of suburban villages have the opportunity to use all the achievements of the city, so, accordingly, suburban areas cannot be fully defined only by the term "village", in a broader sense, these are rural areas that are constantly affected by urbanization. Such urbanized villages.
According to the architect Oleksandr Stolovy, it is not at all worth comparing a suburb with a classic village due to a certain number of fundamental differences:
"Today, we are moving according to the American model of settlement development with a clear difference in the socio-economic component - aggressively high-rise residential areas of cities and sprawling one-story rich suburbs, as well as the stratification of city society into rich and poor.
The village as a typology is more about the self-sufficiency of a small community, about the balance of natural and human, about decentralization as an advantage, about the potential to implement the knowledge of pre-industrial culture in the post-industrial modern world. About a safe, ecological, comfortable, economically convenient place to have more than two children in a family, about which Ukrainian demographers are ringing all the bells.
Dmitrivka village, Kyiv region. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
I think that if we cannot cope with the challenges of such small urban structures as villages, then there are no guarantees that we will consciously form and develop globally competitive urban agglomerations.
I worry that even the largest cities are already shrinking, but the top of their parabola and decline is just around the corner. And the war here only accelerated everything."
In this context, Oleksandr Stolovy also notes that future challenges are the inability to efficiently operate the infrastructure, provide appropriate service to its residents, find one's identity and compete with it on the world market, encouraging people to choose Ukrainian cities for life.
"In my opinion, the state (and this is the Ukrainians themselves) should look at the "city-village" not as a conflict, but as a permanent relationship, a balance, where the village is a self-sufficient urban unit that is widespread and supported by the state..." — Oleksandr Dining room
"In my opinion, the state (and this is the Ukrainians themselves) should look at the "city - village" not as a conflict, but as a permanent relationship, a balance, where the village is a self-sufficient urban unit, widespread and supported by the state, which guarantees an even, a comfortable, dignified standard of living, which will gradually give the population growth that we can only dream about at the moment. And cities, being educational centers, concentrate the cultural assets of the region, reflect on them and set new standards for imitation. So that cities are the pinnacle of the culture of their region. Like a big river overflows from its tributaries," Oleksandr adds.
Residential quarters Vlasne Misto. Visualizations courtesy of Vlasne Misto
City — suburb — village. Why do pendulum migrations occur?
Back in Soviet times, suburban villages were significantly different from other remote villages: they were more promising, and their residents had more opportunities to later move to cities. In addition, most of the structures of suburban villages worked to provide the "big" city with agricultural products, so the maintenance of workers was better. In connection with this, the suburban villages of Kyiv since the second half of the XNUMXth century. were significantly influenced by the city and were attractive to internal migrants. The suburbs became a kind of buffer zone with a large number of new residents, where real estate was (and is) much more expensive than in the hinterland.
During the time of Ukraine's independence, population migration went through a certain number of development stages, each of which was characteristic of a certain period in accordance with the country's economic condition. In considering the interrelationship "city — suburb — village" the very concept of pendulum migration, which defines the regular movements of the urban and rural population from their places of residence to places of employment/education/leisure and in the opposite direction, has gained special importance. Such movement, as a rule, has a cyclical nature (one-day, weekly, monthly) and is not accompanied by a change of place of residence.
Construction of the first phase of Vlasne Misto cottages. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
It is the large percentage of pendulum migrants that is a permanent feature of the suburbs. In particular, a study by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, abbreviated as INSEE) defines suburbs as areas where more than 40% of residents are employed outside their place of residence.
Speaking of pendulum migrants, it is worth taking into account the fact that nowadays their movement is not only in the direction "village - city - village", but also "city - village - city".
Instead, pendulum migrants can be not only city workers living in the countryside, but also those who regularly travel to the city for shopping or entertainment purposes. Speaking of pendulum migrants, it is worth taking into account the fact that nowadays their movement is not only in the direction "village - city - village", but also "city - village - city". First of all, this is due to the appearance, in contrast to city institutions, of industrial, health, and entertainment complexes in the suburban area, which require qualified specialists who cannot always be found in the village.
In the context of internal migration, along with pendulum migrants, it is worth considering another type of migrants - those who changed their permanent place of residence for a long period of time within the framework of the "city - village" or "village - city" system. Indeed, in recent years, one such scenario, namely the tendency to move from the city to the suburbs, has become increasingly noticeable.
Earlier we talked about the creation of the first in Ukraine cluster city of a modern model — Vlasne Misto, which is located in the suburbs of Kyiv, namely in the village of Dmytrivka. On the example of the research of this innovative Ukrainian project Yaroslav Korniachenko, CEO of Vlasne Misto, told what, in his opinion, affects permanent migration processes in the "city-village" system.
Yaroslav Korniachenko, CEO of Vlasne Misto. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
"In Kyiv, this process is much more dynamic. More and more people intend to move to the suburbs, closer to nature and relative peace. I believe that after reaching a certain level of status, financial capacity, or simply moral fatigue from the metropolis, a person comes to a clear understanding that the value of one's own comfort and time spent with family is paramount. Undoubtedly, people who, like me, grew up in the village, when they get to the big city, get many opportunities: education, prestigious work, material goods, etc. But in pursuit of the rhythm of the metropolis, they often forget their basic needs and feelings. I would not like Ukraine to develop in the future following the example of South Korea or Hong Kong, where people are afraid of losing their jobs and fall into labor slavery, which leads to emotional burnout.
Vlasne Misto is located in the immediate vicinity of natural lakes and forests. Visualizations courtesy of Vlasne Misto
In our project, the main task was to combine an innovative city with a rural natural location. We want to show that with proper infrastructural planning, work, education, leisure and family are possible in harmonious coexistence."
According to statistics, the noise level in the village is ten times lower than in the city, the air is six times cleaner and the stress level of the residents is three times lower. In addition, more and more townspeople, exhausted by daily stress, speeds, distances, public transport, traffic jams, decide to move to the village, while maintaining their type of activity. But is the process of the outflow of citizens to the suburbs permanent or is it more of a temporary phenomenon?
Architect Oleksandr Stolovy is convinced that the relocation of residents of the metropolis to the suburbs is temporary and is more related to the demographic factor.
"I do not think that this is connected with any processes of rethinking by society in general. We have a clearly distorted demographics, where the 30-40-year-old population (the second wave of the baby boom of the post-war years of the 60th century) dominates, and it has a tendency to settle down, slow down the pace of life, the level of career growth, which allows working remotely, especially in modern conditions. Therefore, in fact, now we see a certain spread of the population to the suburbs. I think that the trend will decline as the population matures, and in general, there will be popular behavior trends in Ukraine, characteristic of the main age category, which will set the rhythm until the age of XNUMX, then the third wave will take the lead."
Sociocultural development and education
Undoubtedly, migration processes directly affect the development of the economy and social structures of both cities and villages, and speed up the process of forming a suburban space. At the same time, they change the demographic landscape much more actively than natural demographic processes.
In the classical version, the main subject of migration is active young people who aspire to a big city. But how can you detain young people with their protest energy even in the most orderly suburbs? Will it not happen that the settlement in which millions are invested will become a typical "retirement paradise" in 20-30 years, where young people come to visit their parents? Yaroslav Korniachenko believes that his team has found a way to prevent such a scenario.
"The basis of the development of society in Vlasne Misto is education - from kindergarten to a higher educational institution. I am sure that if we gather a group of like-minded people aimed at creating the newest higher educational institution of an international standard, we will succeed. This will be a good incentive for children to stay here and study according to the principles that we will produce within our cluster city. This will enable young people to develop within our city and then create companies that will generate products and services beyond our OTG and the city, perhaps even beyond the borders of Ukraine. After all, we do not reject the possibility of joining with international universities to achieve high quality education.
Sports complex Vlasne Misto. Visualizations courtesy of Vlasne Misto
As for the availability of active leisure for young people, we have a fairly high level of provision, starting from the sports complex near the upper lake, where there are all water and group sports, horse riding, a climbing wall, to a separate location for fishing. Also, the territory of the city has about 84 km of cycling and more than a hundred km of running tracks. Of course, youth leisure includes an entertainment center with various recreation areas and food establishments. And all this was created not in order to keep its resident, but to give him the opportunity to develop here and now."
Skate park in the village of Dmytrivka. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
The attractiveness of such a "completed" settlement in the suburbs is obvious both for townspeople and for residents of nearby villages, in particular due to the general level of population development.
In order to improve the economic and socio-cultural standard of living, since 2015, united territorial communities (UTCs) have been formed in Ukrainian villages.
In order to improve the economic and socio-cultural standard of living, since 2015, united territorial communities (UTCs) have been formed in Ukrainian villages. They received significant financial opportunities to create a more comfortable environment for living in the villages that are part of such communities. Funding obtained by OTG, including subventions for infrastructure development, made it possible to significantly improve infrastructure in many Ukrainian villages. Hundreds of them for the first time in their history received water pumps, street lighting, insulation of kindergartens, school repairs, etc.
Here it is worth noting that the need for the creation of the OTG began to arise not only at the initiative of native villagers, but also due to the active growth of suburbanization processes at the time. Citizens who began to move to the suburbs sought to integrate urban improvements into the life of the settlement.
The village of Bobrytsia of the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn district. Its active residents, in particular those displaced from the city, once created a community and a foundation, the activities of which are aimed at improving the infrastructure of the village, creating modern public spaces, revitalizing communication between residents and improving the quality of life.
But is it always possible to avoid conflict between "own" (local residents) and "strangers" (those who settled in the village, but identify themselves with urban space and culture)?
In one of the interviews, Yaroslav Korniyachenko said that the idea of a future cluster city will spread to the entire Dmitrivska OTG and will join it with new massifs, enterprises and farms to create jobs.
How can the risks of a sense of social inequality between local residents and future residents of Vlasne Misto be mitigated, says the CEO of the company:
"I don't see a risk in this, because there is no imbalance. Dmitrivska OTG is a metropolitan region, so local residents have long considered themselves part of the capital. They have good educational institutions, which are lacking even in Kyiv. Thanks to Taras Didych, the head of the OTG, many investors were attracted, many enterprises were built, and many jobs were created.
Indeed, I have repeatedly spoken about the clustering of the whole community through partnerships or jobs: today the community grows good agricultural products, two enterprises produce high-quality electrical cables that we use, and much more. Local residents will always have the opportunity to visit us for rest or to receive other services.
The cluster will initiate the economic growth of the region through the taxes that the community will receive, because we do not plan to register as a separate administrative unit. And where there is sustainable economic development, there can be no inequality. In addition, the social programs of the cluster provide for the provision of scholarship places in educational institutions, obtaining high-quality medical care and guaranteed energy resources for the community with the leftovers that we receive after the implementation of the Vlasne Green Industry Park," Yaroslav Korniyachenko notes.
Cooperation between new settlements and surrounding territorial communities is beneficial for both parties, but above all, the most positive impact will still be felt by rural areas, because they will have access to urban resources, technologies, communication, transport...
Cooperation between new settlements and surrounding territorial communities is beneficial for both parties, but above all, the most positive impact will still be felt by rural areas, because it is they who will get access to urban resources, technologies, communication, transport... And although today there are no global steps in establishing cooperation of cities, cottage towns and neighboring rural territorial communities, nevertheless legislative opportunities for this have already been created in Ukraine. The Ukrainian law "On Cooperation of Territorial Communities" defines the legal regulation of various forms of cooperation: from the simplest (one-off project) to the most complex (formation of joint management bodies).
Yaroslav Korniyachenko shared how he sees the dynamics of development and the prospect of building socio-cultural relations between the residents of Vlasne Misto and Dmitrivska OTG:
"Today, we have the full support of the Dmitrivsk OTG in this matter. A memorandum was concluded with her on the joint development of educational, social and cultural institutions in order to give local residents the opportunity to exchange achievements and receive the same level of development that we envision within Vlasne Misto. Most educational, entertainment and recreational facilities are located in areas that are accessible both to local residents of OTG and to guests who are free to come to us.
Memorandum on partnership between Dmitrivska OTG and Vlasne Misto. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
I am convinced that you cannot build a sincere and open society by closing yourself off from the world with a fence. And we will not be able to develop the economy without external relations. Therefore, for us, the main external connection is cooperation with Dmitrivska OTG".
In accordance with the partnership memorandum concluded between the Dmitrivska OTG and Vlasne Misto, the main direction of cooperation is the harmonious development of the Dmitrivska OTG itself, as well as the desire to implement European quality of life to it and the construction of modern European-style infrastructure. This contract provides, in particular, the construction of educational institutions, reconstruction and construction of a complex of sewage treatment plants, social, cultural and public facilities.
Dmitrivska school No. 1. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
The parties also reached an agreement on the joint development and use of the premises of educational institutions that have been built and will be built in the future within the boundaries of the Dmitrov OTG and Vlasne Misto. They will be involved in conducting educational events, sports competitions, exchange of experience, teacher training, etc.
In accordance with the partnership memorandum concluded between the Dmitrivska OTG and Vlasne Misto, the main direction of cooperation is the harmonious development of the Dmitrivska OTG itself, as well as the desire to implement European quality of life to it and the construction of modern European-style infrastructure.
As part of socio-cultural cooperation, the management of Vlasne Misto assures that a mandatory scholarship program will be present in each of their educational institutions. It will provide free education for low-income families, both future residents of Vlasne Misto and residents of Dmytrivka itself. The scholarship program will also be extended to children who lost one of their parents during hostilities between February 2014 and the present day (as well as until the end of martial law imposed by the decree of the President of Ukraine).
"Of course, such a scholarship program will also be designed for children who are eager to learn and show a high level of knowledge, because I personally believe that they should be encouraged to stay in Ukraine, and it does not matter if it is a public school or a private one. We must provide them with the maximum level of access to knowledge," Yaroslav Korniyachenko notes.
Vlasne Misto School. Visualizations courtesy of Vlasne Misto
Right to land
Starting from the end of the 2000s, Western-style cottage towns began to be massively built in suburban Ukrainian villages. On large areas of land, developers built private houses with security and service, kindergartens, schools, shops, etc. As a rule, such mini-settlements were built on former collective farm lands that were transferred to local residents for use in the late 1990s. With the appearance of such cottage towns, very often the natural area for common use was limited to the inhabitants of nearby villages, which, of course, went against the vision of the native settlers.
How the land use process takes place today, let's consider the example of the town of Vlasne Misto, which is inscribed in the territory of the forest and the already existing landscape structure, in particular, the territory of the village of Dmytrivka.
The Vlasne Misto team is actively promoting the creation of a local reserve to preserve the forest area from industrial logging under the guise of sanitary cleaning. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
Adhering to the "green" concept of the project, Yaroslav Korniyachenko assures that no construction or felling is planned on the territory of forestry. On the contrary, the creation of a local reserve is being actively initiated to preserve the forest area from industrial felling under the guise of sanitary cleaning, and a program for planting wild plants and restoring the mushroom population in the forest is being developed.
The CEO of Vlasne Misto explained how forestry land use and the use of Dmytrivka residents by the current recreational areas of lakes on the territory of the town are taking place, and whether the residents of Dmytrivka OTG will be able to fully use the infrastructure and services of Vlasne Misto.
Residents of Dmytrivka will be able to freely use artificial water bodies and will have free access to the forest massif located on the territory of Vlasne Misto. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
"We are open to residents of Dmitrivska OTG. On generally accepted terms and without violating the law, its residents will be able to use artificial water bodies and have free access to the forest massif, since it is state property. Almost all commercial locations are designed along the outer border of Vlasne Misto and on its main boulevard. This will provide easy access to the infrastructure for outside guests, while keeping the residential part of the city private and safe for city residents.
The city plan provides recreation and BBQ areas, a fishing complex with a school, walking areas, a wake park, a beach club, and two sports complexes. All these hospitality facilities, including the market square, are intended for public use. In addition, if a resident of Dmitrivska OTG or another community becomes part of the Vlasne Misto team or cluster companies, he will have many additional bonuses as part of the HR strategy and loyalty program."
"We are open to residents of Dmitrivska OTG. Under generally accepted conditions and without violating the law, its residents will be able to use artificial water bodies and have free access to the forest massif, since it is state property," - Yaroslav Korniyachenko
In order to reduce the carbon footprint within the city, in addition to the greenhouse complex, Vlasne Misto has designed green areas - approximately 160 hectares of parks, squares, boulevards and green roofs. The main task for dendrologists during the creation of the program of activities of the "green" concept of Vlasne Misto was the preservation of existing independent green stands. The management of Vlasne Misto promises to replant the trees that fall into the spots of construction in green areas.
According to the draft law of Ukraine "On green areas of cities and other settlements", the area of green areas for public use in cities should be at least 25 m2/person, in rural settlements - at least 20 m2/people. Instead, Vlasne Misto exceeded these standards many times.
"We don't like to adapt our objects to restrictive norms. To quickly summarize, more than 165 hectares of parks and squares alone, not including green roofs and lawns within private houses, have been designed in Vlasne Misto. This is based on a population of 32 — more than 50 m2 per person You can count the forest massif separately," says Yaroslav Korniyachenko.
An important point is also the improvement of the existing infrastructure of the village and the laying of additional networks. According to the memorandum concluded between Dmitrivska OTG and Vlasne Misto, the reconstruction of the network of sewage pumping stations is planned, as well as the construction of pressure and gravity pipelines of the KNS network, for which the parties decided to create a joint venture.
Instead, Vlasne Misto undertakes to develop a sewage treatment plant project with its own or investment funds that will meet the norms of both the current legislation of Ukraine and international standards. The cleaning technology will provide for maximum waste-free and environmental friendliness, and the complex of treatment facilities will be connected to the generating park of green energy, which will consist of complexes of solar power plants and methane generators.
Yaroslav Korniachenko, CEO of Vlasne Misto. Photo: Yuriy Ferendovych
Today, the city and the suburbs are an interconnected space with close interaction. Suburban villages are actually not villages by many indicators, primarily by lifestyle. Instead, the development of technologies, the transition to the era of the information society is increasingly equalizing the opportunities of large and small cities. Therefore, today's suburb, which "writes" the history of the middle class, also reflects the face of the modern city.
But without spreading the further positive influence of cities on the development of rural areas, without including rural areas in networks with cities and towns, it is not worth talking about a certain global improvement of the situation in villages. For this, a certain infrastructure is needed: roads, the Internet, infrastructure of services, improvement of qualifications and opportunities for continuous education of a person throughout his life, etc.
We should take into account the example of the countries of Europe and North America, where in recent decades the creation of so-called good-neighborly zones around large cities, where large cities cooperate with surrounding small towns and rural areas, is characteristic. For Ukraine, the initiation of such cooperation and interaction of cities and surrounding territories is also extremely important.
