In Orel, a businesswoman sued officials for the right to shop

The Arbitration Court of the Orel region declared invalid the refusal of the city planning department to grant the entrepreneur permission for the conditionally allowed type of use of the site for a store.

As follows from the materials of the case, the woman is the owner of a land plot of 2,697 square meters in the village of Zhilina of the Orel municipal district and the store building located on it. The plot is located in the zone of individual residential buildings, where the type of permitted use of the "Shop" is conditionally permissible. In March last year, the businesswoman appealed to the city planning department for permission, but after a public hearing, at which an opinion was expressed against, the land use and development commission recommended not to agree on adjustments. Officials agreed and issued a refusal order, this document is dated July 3, 2025. The authorities referred to the fact that the established type of permitted use “to accommodate stores with a total retail area of less than 150 sq. m.” corresponds to the issued permit for the commissioning of the facility with a total area of 402.4 sq. m.

Servants of Themis found that neither the conclusion of public hearings nor the contested refusal contain reasonable arguments on which the entrepreneur was denied. The recommendations of the commission and the conclusion of hearings do not carry power and do not oblige the local government to agree with them - the decision should be made primarily on the basis of the principles of urban planning legislation. The office should have justified the reasons for the refusal, but this was not done. The court also noted that the officials did not substantiate in any way why the granting of the permit would contradict the principles of town-planning activities, especially since the store in the facility is actually ready.

As a result, the servants of Themis considered that the unmotivated refusal violates the rights of the entrepreneur and creates obstacles in the implementation of economic activities. The order of the Department of Urban Planning, Architecture and Land Management of the Orel region of July 3, 2025 was declared invalid, 10,000 rubles were recovered from the management in favor of the entrepreneur as reimbursement of state duty costs.

By the way, the court decision can still appeal. They have one month to do that.