City authorities will force Capital Group to restore the Kolbe house on Bolshaya Yakimanka Ulitsa, which it tore down illegally, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in an interview on Rossia 1 television.
"This didn't happen without [the developer's] direct involvement. So we make it restore the building and its front wall," Sobyanin said on the air Sunday, RIA-Novosti reported.
The Arkhnadzor civic movement reported last month that the building had been destroyed, despite the fact that preserving its facade was one of the terms of the developer's permit.
The mayor also said officials who allowed the destruction of the building to take place would face criminal charges.
"The building was torn down under an order from the administrative inspector. But there were irregularities in documenting and issuing the order," Sobyanin said. "Not only will disciplinary measures be taken against the responsible parties, some of whom no longer have jobs, but a criminal case will be initiated as well."
Sobyanin noted that what happened to the Kolbe house was not an isolated case in Moscow.
The mayor said in the same interview that the city's cultural heritage department has 3,251 sites on its rolls. Of those, 836 are not in a satisfactory state of repair and 239 of them have been condemned.
"We have developed a program for Moscow culture for 2010-16 … that preliminarily includes an increase of 40 percent in money allotted for the restoration of [historical] monuments," Sobyanin said.
