Lviv Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning Lyubomyr Zubach spoke about the issue of agglomeration.
Lyubomyr Zubach – first of all, it is an issue of agglomeration. You are, so to speak, a pioneer in the issue of agglomeration in the Lviv region. But isn’t this an attempt to replace concepts and divide the powers of the city, the region?
Agglomeration is not some Ukrainian peculiarity, it is a global, European trend, because around large cities there are always surrounding territories that are integrated with them. This is a single organism that works together, regardless of the administrative structure. Because natural connections have developed that way. People live near the city, but, for example, they work or take their children to school in a large city. And this creates certain connections that require regulation.
I started dealing with the issue of agglomeration when I was a people’s deputy. Then, with my colleagues, we developed a separate bill on urban agglomerations. It was a response to certain shortcomings of the process of unification of communities, when regional centers largely remained within their borders, and did not foresee the expansion that was possible at that time. And this is not good.
If large cities are “clamped”, then all their problems will accumulate and this will create many problematic issues.
Then the unification process ended for Lviv absolutely normally, calmly. As a result, we have a Lviv community and now the agglomeration is definitely not a question of some further expansion of the city of Lviv. On the contrary, it is a question of cooperation, mutual understanding and the implementation of joint projects. We approached it very systematically and professionally. It is not that we wanted to create an agglomeration. No. We had a project together with the regional administration, which was supported by the Council of Europe. Within its framework, experts were involved, a working group was created within its framework, which worked on all this. A strategy was developed, which, firstly, recorded that such an agglomeration actually exists. Not de jure, but de facto. The legal form may be different. For example, in Poland there is the Katowice agglomeration, which is created by law, and there is the Krakow agglomeration, which exists as an association – that is, a voluntary association.
We followed the path of Kraków and created an agglomeration in the form of an association of local governments. That is, this is a form that allows us to solve common problems with surrounding communities and implement joint projects, without in any way questioning the independence and self-sufficiency of each community.
And the regional administration is not affected in any way in terms of any powers, because the agglomeration can only deal with what is within the sphere of powers of local government. And the more successful the communities, or if the same agglomeration shows some positive results, then this is only a plus for the regional administration.
Ok. It is clear with regional administrations, but is there also such a body as regional councils, which, in my opinion, lose their meaning in the case of successful and effective agglomerations?
When I worked for a year as a deputy of the regional council … Although it is said too loudly in relation to deputies of the regional council – “worked”. That is, a year of the term has passed. I immediately said then that the regional council, under the existing legislation, is a structure that if you simply close it, no one will notice that it exists or that it does not exist. It does not affect the processes in any way, especially now that the regional budget is approved by the regional state administration.
Ultimately, this is a question of the constitutional system and it must be regulated somehow. Either regional councils work, create their own executive bodies and provide executive power in the region, or look for some other options. It is illogical and ineffective, the way it works now.
And don’t decentralization and the unification of communities and agglomerations compete with each other?
They do not compete in any way, because the unification process has already taken place. Communities were formed throughout Ukraine and local elections were held accordingly. Therefore, this issue is already closed. Now there is no question of changing it, at least I have not heard of such plans somewhere in the Verkhovna Rada.
Agglomeration, I repeat, this does not concern any issue of changing borders, expansion or absorption – it is exclusively cooperation.
There is also such a form of cooperation as municipal cooperation, but in Ukraine this form has never been effective from the point of view of a large city and smaller communities that are around it. Actually, agglomeration is a form of cooperation between a large city and the surrounding communities that are near it, which are united by certain integration ties.
Can agglomerations qualitatively solve the issues of big business? For example, industrial parks and their placement?
Of course. Industrial parks and not only, just large production facilities that can potentially enter Ukraine and our region. Conditionally speaking, tomorrow the war ends, we win, foreign investors come. And some conditional Mercedes company comes to Lviv region, to the city council, and says that it wants to build a factory on 40 hectares with us.
I think we definitely won’t find such a plot within the city. Within the Lviv community, which is already united, you can search, but it’s difficult, because there are different lands, and not all of them can be used for production. And within the Lviv agglomeration, you can already think about it, search, and it will be a plus for everyone. Because this is a huge investment. And that, in fact, is one of the tasks of the agglomeration. Because agglomerations are points of economic growth. All experts and scientists say this.
And when we have a large agglomeration, we can even prepare investment proposals of much higher quality. Investors are interested in working, first of all, where there is infrastructure, where there is human resources, and where there are partners with whom you can communicate. Actually, from this point of view, agglomerations provide such opportunities.
But for now, this is a theory. While there is a war, investors are not very eager.
And regarding internal relocation, does this process still exist?
I think that for those who were concerned about this issue, they have indeed completed their relocation. However, the Lviv region still remains interesting for investors. And even in the field of urban development, which I am involved in, I feel interest not only from our local entrepreneurs, but also sometimes people from central and eastern Ukraine who are interested in the opportunity to implement their projects here. Lviv interests many.
The full conversation with Lubomyr Zubach is here:
