Decision 38 COM 7B.31

Historic Centre of the City of Yaroslavl (Russian Federation) (C 1170)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC-14/38.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 36 COM 7B.84 and 37 COM 7B.81 adopted at its 36th (Saint-Petersburg, 2012) and 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013) sessions respectively,
3. Notes the progress made by the State Party in strengthening legislative and regulatory control to improve the protection of the property;
4. Reiterates its concerns that inappropriate construction and/or infrastructure developments with inappropriate scale, height and mass, or incorporating non-traditional materials, impose a threat to the Outstanding Universal Value of the property inscribed for its importance in architecture, town planning and spatial relationships between buildings and urges the State Party to:
   1. to finalize and adopt an appropriate legal instrument which should take into consideration the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) to restrict land use and developments within the property, with particular emphasis on the establishment of no-construction zones, and strict limits to development rights,
   2. to ensure that this legal instrument be applicable even for the projects which were already approved within the existing Urban Master Plan,
   3. to ensure that heritage impact assessments become a mandatory prior to any development;
5. Also urges the State Party to improve the management structure of the property and to submit to the World Heritage Centre, a Management Plan along with a Conservation strategy for the property, for review by the Advisory Bodies;
6. Strongly reiterates its request to the State Party to submit, in conformity with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines , details of any proposed developments, including those reported as still awaiting implementation, such as the new bypass road, bridges and traffic interchange around the property, that may have an adverse impact on the OUV of the property, accompanied by heritage impact assessments;
7. Also notes that the excavated remains of the original bell tower of the Cathedral of the Assumption are being conserved and requests the State Party to confirm that the proposed reconstruction of the bell tower has been cancelled;
8. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2015, a report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and on the implementation of the above points, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016.