The Moscow City Court dismissed a suit brought by residents who challenged the city law allowing green space to be used for construction of kindergartens and schools, Interfax reported.
One of the claimants, Alexander Andreyev, a deputy in the municipal assembly of the Lefortovo neighborhood, said Moscow lacks no less than 8,000 hectares of planted green space. Andreyev questioned the need to sacrifice green spaces to make way for kindergartens.
"Prior to adopting the law allowing kindergartens to be put in green spaces, the city government allocated money for the construction of new kindergartens to serve more than 38,000 children, and they were planned to be constructed not in areas now occupied by parks. With our declining fertility rates, why do we need so many kindergartens?" Andreev asked.
The claimants maintained that the City Duma authorized the tree cutting in park areas for the construction of kindergartens and schools by means of changing the protected status of the land, which is also used by garage owners, without conducting an environmental impact study or offering compensation.
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