On July 22, the Kuibyshevsky district court of St.-Petersburg obliged the St.-Petersburg City Committee for Town-Planning and Architecture to provide a response to a request for information on the “Okhta Center” construction.

The scandal with the “Okhta Center” is not calming down due to a number of reasons, including premeditated information deficit caused by the official structures.

They assure the UNESCO and the general public that the new sky-scraper will not be seen from the Palace Square, Nevsky Prospekt, or Vasilievsky Island. But there are no facts confirming this.

Several citizens asked the city administration to provide information on sociological surveys and research materials its declarations are based on. The request was transferred to the Committee for Town-Planning and Architecture. No response has been received, and the requestors filed a claim to court.

Up to the court hearing date, the response was delivered, but not to the address stated as contact one. The response itself is a classic runaround: a lot of words and no single word on the request essence.

The court obliged the regional government body to submit its response to the relevant address but agreed with its contents. So the plaintiffs are going to file a cassation appeal in the nearest future.

The opponents of the Okhta Center construction plans are afraid that the sky-scraper will damage the picturesque views of the city center. Today, it is not difficult to create a virtual model allowing to estimate the sky-scraper’s influence to city views soundly and to make a reasonable decision. But up to now, there is no real model or document; only declarations are proposed to the public. Half-words and evasions cause mistrust to the construction project itself.