The State Duma adopted in the second reading a draft law that would simplify document processing for housing construction on the land received under the Arctic Hectare and Far Eastern Hectare programs.

The draft law was submitted to the State Duma in December 2021. It suggests amending the laws on the specifics of allocating land plots in the Arctic zone of Russia and other territories in the North, Siberia and the Far East, as well as the Urban Planning Code.

The authors of the initiative said the law enforcement monitoring of the current law revealed the need for additional specification of its provisions. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin noted earlier that citizens who received hectares under the relevant programs faced difficulties in developing these plots, especially in building houses on them. He said their permit applications are often rejected on formal grounds due to the absence of endorsed urban planning documents.

“The draft law suggests creating an opportunity to build an individual house or a garden house on a plot of land granted free of charge <...> based on the parameters in the planned and completed construction notices, provided that the relevant bodies are not authorized to check if these parameters conform to the rules of land use and construction,” reads an explanatory note to the draft.

The initiative also removes the obligation of citizens who received a plot to present a declaration on its use three years after the beginning of its development. Moreover, they will be able to choose a type of permitted land use over the course of two years rather than one, as established today.

In addition, the authorized bodies will receive the right to form land plots through a simplified procedure by using the federal information system To the Far East.