Programs for Comfortable Urban Environment in Russia: Institutions, Regulation, and Finance

The article considers key difficulties in regulation of creating a comfortable urban environment in Russian cities.Such programs are actively developed nowadays, and significant budget funds are allocated for urban environmentdevelopment. At the same time, serious problems have arisen in this area: 1) legal norms and institutions have not created sufficient guarantees for taking into account the opinions of residents within the framework of improvement, which leads to the infringement of their rights and social conflicts; 2) the institutional framework for improvement programs, including the problems of hard and soft budget constraints; 3) the problem of strict regulation and legal acts, which prevents a creative approach to the improvement of the urban environment, and makes it difficult to take into account local residents’ opinion. The authors of the article, considering the existing regional legislation and international experience, propose measures to enhance the institutions and principles in the field of urban improvement.On the one hand, costs of improvement programs should be adequate to the capabilities of the government (regions), business, and society; improvement should not turn into a heavy burden and a source of rent extraction. On the other hand, it was shown that significant liberalization in this field should be achieved in order to move from bureaucratic regulation towards respecting the opinion of local residents and property owners. The opinion of residents and owners (rather than abstract standards) should form the basis of decision-making, and unnecessary improvement projects and rules should not be imposed. This requires the revival of the public hearings institution, both in urban planning projects and in improvement projects, and it is necessary to guarantee the veto right of local residents and take into account their position.In practice, various formats can be used for protecting the rights of local residents – from local referendums to creating public councils. Other actors (political parties, nonprofit organizations, etc.) can also play an important role in public discussion, but for an effective dialogue, fundamental measures are needed to develop local democracy and civil society. 

Keywords: comfortable urban environment, urban improvement, legal regulation, urban planning policy, public hearings, local democracy