Residents of the Teremky residential area in Holosiivsky district of Kyiv and representatives of the city authorities have agreed to spend two weeks verifying whether a backup heating network can be laid along an alternative route to preserve trees in the green zone, Suspilne reports.
"The city authorities do not yet confirm that the alternative route can be implemented. Currently, the previous heating network project remains valid," the report says.
The meeting was attended by about a hundred residents and activists, as well as Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) Petro Panteleyev, representatives of Holosiivsky District State Administration, engineers, and designers.
Residents demanded to be shown design and permit documents and to have it explained why it was decided to lay the heating network through the green zone. They support the construction of the network, but want to preserve the trees, and state that they have still not been provided with documents explaining the choice of route and the tree felling.
Panteleyev explained that the backup heating network is needed to prepare Kyiv for potential accidents in the heat supply system; the current route was chosen due to existing underground utilities, and laying pipes along Teremkivska Street is technically impossible due to sewer, water supply networks, and power cables, and there is currently no other approved project.
At the same time, during the meeting, an engineer representing the community presented a possible alternative option for laying the network. Specialists are to additionally review it and other possibilities within two weeks. Whether the alternative route can be implemented remains unknown.
The conflict at Teremky arose around the construction of a backup heating network intended to provide backup heat supply to 183 residential buildings, three medical institutions, and 18 schools and kindergartens in the event of an emergency shutdown of CHPP-5. Within the construction corridor, the city plans to remove 662 trees, 56 of which are to be transplanted, as well as 70 bushes, 16 of them to be transplanted.
Construction is being carried out through a protective shelterbelt that existed long before the construction of the residential area and was specially preserved during its construction as a recreational zone. Among the trees planned for removal are dozens of oaks aged 60-120 years, over a hundred ash trees, as well as dozens of pear, apple, acacia, maple, linden, hornbeam, poplar, willow, chestnut, and other species. Currently, some of the trees have already been destroyed. The KCSA asserts that the work is being carried out after an inspection of the plantings and necessary approvals, and that after construction is completed, the area will be landscaped and new trees and bushes will be planted.
At the same time, local residents demand documents justifying the felling, oppose the destruction of trees in the green zone, and claim that during 2020-2025 project documentation for laying the heating network along another route, in particular under Teremkivska Street, was funded for over UAH 8 million and developed in several revisions. Municipal Enterprise Kyivteploenergo acted as its client.
Residents also claim that laying the heating network on the site of the shelterbelt may be linked to meeting the needs of the Ozernyi Hai residential complex in the neighboring village of Hatne and the Abrykosovyi residential complex near Teremky.
