Residents of the Lokomotiv gardening association in Uralsk have gone to court to secure residential area status for their territory. During the adjustment of the city's general plan, their plots were left as dacha land, while neighboring associations received individual housing construction (IHC) status. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

About 400 families permanently reside in Lokomotiv. The territory is located within the city limits, and its residents have city registration. The dacha owners had hoped that the new general plan would change the status of their plots, but this did not happen.

Resident Nurzhigit Seitmakhambetov believes the authorities unjustifiably bypassed Lokomotiv.

"Whatever body it is, the regional akimat, the city akimat, any state body works to improve the lives of its residents. But in this case we see the opposite. We were simply bypassed. We remained at the beginning. And everyone after us has IHC. And we are not just offended, we want to improve our lives too," Seitmakhambetov said.

Residents decided to challenge the decision in court. Akimat representatives explained that the territory does not meet the requirements for a residential area. Among the reasons, officials cited insufficiently developed infrastructure, difficult access for fire trucks and ambulances, and the risk of flooding.

The dacha owners claim they have collected documents refuting these arguments.

"They say we are flooded, groundwater. But with certificates from the Emergency Situations Ministry and the hydromet, this was refuted. That is, even space monitoring, 'Gharysh sapary', confirmed that we have no flooding in either 2011 or 2024," said resident Abai Temir.

During the court proceedings, residents also drew attention to differences in the statuses of neighboring plots. According to them, some recently built houses already fall under individual housing construction, while most of the territory is still intended for gardening.

"For example, I have a plot. Opposite is a plot with IHC status. Mine is a gardening association, and the designated purpose is for gardening and construction. And I want to draw attention that many have IHC status, but for some reason the main part remains without this status," said Zhannat Kasenova.

Residents said that because of the dacha status they are forced to install electricity themselves, build roads and solve other infrastructure problems. At the same time, many families have lived in the association for several decades.

If Lokomotiv's status is not changed during the current adjustment of the general plan, about 400 families may remain dacha residents until 2040. That is when the next revision of the document is reportedly planned.

The Uralsk Department of Architecture and Urban Planning stated that residents themselves did not take the opportunity to present their proposals during public discussions.

"In February, public discussions were held, at which a number of issues regarding the adjustment of this general plan were raised, where the issue was not raised by representatives of the gardening association. Residents of the gardening association had the opportunity to express their position at public discussions, which was not done," said Albina Zhardemova, head of the urban planning documentation sector.

The department added that changes to the general plan have already been made, and the document itself is undergoing expert review. Officials do not intend to adjust it again for the sake of one gardening association.

The dacha owners, in turn, claim that they participated in hearings last year, but they were declared invalid due to errors in the draft general plan. Lokomotiv residents intend to continue the court proceedings and seek a change in the status of the territory.