As the director of the legal department of the Lviv City Council, Helena Payonkevych, reported, the Supreme Court referred the Dobrobut market case for a new hearing, but taking into account the arguments presented by the Lviv City Council, which, unfortunately, were not heard in the courts of previous instances.
“Thus, the Supreme Court confirmed that the object on the market is temporary. And also that the state act was issued on the basis of the order of the executive committee, although it should be issued on the basis of the decision of the session. That is, the Supreme Court took into account all the arguments that we talked about in the courts in Lviv. Therefore, the Supreme Court believes that the courts of the 1st and 2nd instance did not investigate our arguments and sent the case back for a new consideration,” explained Helena Payonkevich.
We will remind you that the “Dobrobut” market case has been going on since the 90s. 30 years ago, the Austrians planned to build a 5-story hotel with a parking lot here. They promised funds and equipment, and the Lviv City Council promised to allocate a plot behind the Opera House and demolish 3 houses that were hindering the implementation of the project. The city fulfilled its part of the obligations. The developer had just built the foundation, on which in 1997 the Dobrobut temporary market was set up, which was supposed to operate until the investor resumed construction of the hotel. But the trade dragged on for a quarter of a century.
The estimated cost of damages caused to the community by the illegal use of land plots is about 450 million hryvnias. “Galinvest Joint Ukrainian-Austrian Enterprise” LLC belongs to an Austrian company, the ultimate beneficiary of which is Valery Kholodylo from Lviv.
A detailed chronology of events unfolding over decades around the Dobrobut market can be found here.