The April 2 meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council was full of controversy. The draft decision on the securing and development of the Centru area – historical nucleus of Chisinau – was approved by the votes of 28 councilors amid the protest mounted by the PAS group with placards. The municipal councilors offended each other and even stated to push each other, IPN reports.

The draft decision was presented by its author Aliona Mandatii, councilor of the PPPDA. Mandatii said this decision is aimed at governing the implementation of the local urbanism regulations concerning the functional division of the territory and particular urban development regulations that will be applied until the Centru Zonal Urbanistic Plan is approved.

The PAS councilors said the National Anticorruption Center disapproved of the bill and there were committed particular procedural violations, noting the decision drafted by the PPPDA runs counter to the legislation as it legalizes the Local Urbanism Regulations that cannot be applied to the historical nucleus of the city, as the CMC decided on December 25, 2008. A Zonal Urbanistic Plan should be drafted so as to save the center of the capital city and this should delimit the central zone that would develop according to strict regulations.

After long and heated debates on the draft decision, the councilors voted the body of the regulations and took a break. When returning to the meeting, the PAS group asked to close the meeting. The draft was ultimately approved in the final version with an amendment proposed by Socialist MP Alexandr Bondarenco.

The dilemma whether to continue the meeting or not generated more tensions that were accompanied by offenses and pushing. A lunch break was finally announced.

Under the approved decision, the deputy mayor in charge of the sector is to create a working group that will work out the conception for the development of the Historical Center of Chisinau until August 31, 2021. The General Architecture, Urbanism and Land Relations Division will design the urbanism documentation, while the General Finance Division will redistribute the existing financial resources so as to implement the conception for the development of the historical nucleus.