The very serious matter of Kytheria Spiritual Centre was thoroughly discussed at the Alimos Municipal Council on Monday 29 January 2023. The Mayor Andreas Kondylis, in his introduction stressed once again that the unfinished building must be completed immediately and operate as a Spiritual Centre.
“Today we all have to take a clear position, whether we are with the residents or with the developer. The attitude of the major minority in the Municipal Committee, which did not vote for our proposal, throws water in the mill of the developer and essentially supports the plans of Trifyllio. I hope tonight they reconsider,” the Mayor said.
Finally, the issue (“Significant modification of the urban plan”) for the Kytheria area was voted unanimously. Thomas Giourgas, Eleni Belia and Yannis Orfanos from the faction “EMEIS in Alimos”, abstained from the vote.
Watch the Alimos Municipal Council meeting live in the video below.
In detail, the proposal of Andreas Kondylis:
“Today the Municipal Authority brings to the Board of Directors for discussion a very important issue (“Significant modification of the urban plan”) for the area of Kytheria, but also for our city as a whole.
I would dare say of historic proportions for the modern form of the city. We had a similar case in the 1980s when EYDAP tried to install a sewage pumping station on Kytheria Hill. It would have been a disaster to turn an area of outstanding natural beauty into a site for the collection and conveyance of sewage. Then with the intervention of residents and the Municipal Authority the Hill was finally saved.
Now the time of crisis has come for another important and distinct area, the Cultural Centre of Kytheria Alimos, at OT 264, on Kytheria Avenue 75-79, next to the Myrtidiotissa Church. A center of culture and social solidarity, as envisioned and designed by the first settlers of the area, who built it up to the point where it is today (masonry). According to their design, the area was intended to house, among other things: cultural events, a museum, a library, a library, a youth centre, a small wing of a nursing home, etc.
Unfortunately, the manager of this unique site, the Trifyllion Foundation, plans to exploit the site commercially, to demolish the Cultural Centre and to erect in its place 4 apartment buildings, with a total capacity of 48 residences, for commercial exploitation.
A dilemma is therefore posed, which needs a clear answer, with straightforward and clear words from everyone: Spiritual Center or Multifamily?;
The position of the Municipal Authority, the majority, is clear: the unfinished building must be completed immediately and operate as a Spiritual Centre of the Kytheria area, for the benefit of the Kythirian residents of the area and our citizens in general, exactly as it has been designed from the beginning by the Kythirian Building Association and the first Kythirian residents of the area. As the Kytherian Cooperators wanted it, as the interests of the area dictated, as the donation contract and the urban planning of the municipality dictated. The overwhelming majority of Kytherian residents agree with this position.
We call on the other factions of the City Council to take a clear position, whether they support the planning for the Cultural Centre or the planning for apartment buildings. I emphasise this, because we have already had the phenomenon in the Municipal Committee that an opposition faction did not vote in favour of the Cultural Centre. Today we must all take a clear position, whether we are with the residents or with the developer.
For the better information of the House and the citizens listening to us, I will give you a brief history of the property:
- 1969: the Building Cooperative decides that the site will be used for the construction of the «Kytheria Cultural Centre». It had already been decided that the two adjacent sites would be used for a School and a Church respectively, in order to create the triptych «School - Church - Culture».
- 1992: Building Permit 784/1992 is issued for the construction of the Kytheria Cultural Centre. The building of the site begins.
• 1995-2004: the Kytheria Cultural Centre is built, at the expense of the Kytheria Cooperative. The funds come largely from the sale of land owned by the Cooperative in the area.
• 2004: the Cooperative donates by contract the property to the Triphyllion Foundation, with the sole and explicit purpose of completing the Kytheria Cultural Centre and its operation. In order to cover the costs of the completion, the Cooperative donates to the Triphyllion Foundation five (5) plots of land in the Kytheria area, in order to be sold and to generate funds for the renovation works. It is expressly provided that the building will house, among other things: a library and reading room, an exhibition hall, a museum, a small amphitheatre, a youth and student services department for Kythirian students, a small wing for housing and care of Kythirian seniors in the area
• 2007: the 101/2007 revision of the Building Permit is issued, for the extension of the validity of the 784/1992 building permit and the addition of a floor to the Cultural Centre.
• 2004-2024: the Trifillion Foundation does not sell the five (5) plots of land and does not proceed with any construction work for the completion of the building.
- 2021 (January): the Municipality of Alimos characterizes the area as a «cultural (welfare) area» in its new General Urban Plan. The approval of this new General Plan is still pending at the competent Ministry. Trifyllion has never expressed any opposition to this planning.
- 2022 (September): the Trifyllion Foundation announces a tender for the completion of the building, with the system of consideration. The Municipality of Alimos submits a proposal, as it had already agreed with the management of the Trifillion Foundation, in order to undertake to complete the building. In the end, the Trifyllion Foundation awarded the contract to the construction company DAKON SA, which however did not propose to complete the property, but to demolish it and build 48 housing complexes.
- 2023 (November): without having informed the Municipality of Alimos, the Trifyllion Foundation intervenes before the Ministry of Environment, requesting that the area not be classified as a «cultural (welfare) area», but as a General Residential area, so that the construction of residences (or shops) and the commercial exploitation of the property is possible. It is now clear that the Triphyllion Foundation is seeking to breach the terms of the donation.
- 2024 (January): An open meeting of the residents of the Kytheria area is held and signatures of the residents are collected, demanding the preservation of the Spiritual Centre and the protection of the purpose of the donation and the use of the land that already exists in the area.
You understand, after all this, that the design of the Trifyllion Foundation to demolish the building donated by the Kytheria Cooperative and in its place to build a complex of 4 apartment buildings (48 residences in total), is opposed not only by the Municipal Authority, but also by the vast majority of the residents of the Kytheria area. Moreover, and most importantly, this design violates the terms and purpose of the donation of the property, which was donated in 2004 by the Kytheria Cooperative to the Trifyllion Foundation, with the exclusive purpose of its completion and operation as a Cultural Centre. for the residents of the Kytheria area.
This property was not donated for any other purpose or any other economic use, therefore the demolition of the Spiritual Centre and the construction of apartment buildings with the system of renting is in direct contradiction with the terms of the donation made by the residents of Kythira to the Trifyllion Foundation in 2004, trusting the Foundation to complete and operate the Cultural Centre.
In addition, and this is of great importance, the donor, the Kytheria Cooperative, gave to the Trifyllion Foundation five (5) plots of land, in order to sell them and with the money that will be generated from the sale, to cover the cost of completing the unfinished building (Cultural Centre).
Therefore, the choice of the Trifyllion Foundation not to sell these 5 plots and not to complete the Cultural Centre for 20 years (2004-2024), but to finally demolish the unfinished building (for the construction of which the Kythirians of the area had spent large sums of money) and in its place to construct private residences for economic exploitation, is an option that is completely contrary to the wishes of the Kytherian donors and to the cultural-social planning that the Kytherian settlers of the area made from the outset. Furthermore, this planning is contrary to the urban planning and the urban planning of the area, but also to the public and social interest of all the inhabitants of the Kytheria area, who have been waiting for almost 20 years for the fulfilment of the conditions of the donation, the completion of the unfinished building and its operation as a centre of cultural activity and social solidarity.
The Municipality of Alimos intends to exercise all legal means at its disposal, in order to to fulfill the desire and planning of the Kytheria Cooperative, not to demolish the Cultural Centre, but instead the building to be completed as soon as possible and to function as a place of culture and social solidarity, just as the first Kytherian settlers of the area planned and as the whole Kytherian region needs today.
I would like to point out that we are the only Municipal Authority that has dealt so much and so actively with this issue. Other Municipal Authorities had proposed to Trifyllion that the Municipality should take the site and complete it (Mantzouranis and Orfanos). For history, the Church, the late Archbishop Christodoulos, had also shown interest. Our Municipal Authority, however, made two practical moves. a) It officially characterized the site as a site of Welfare (Culture) in 2021 with the GPA, b) it tried to contribute substantially to the completion of the property, by making a study and submitting a proposal for the completion of the site, within the framework of the tender announced by the Foundation and the Ministry. In other words, we gave a way out, we made a proposal that could get Trifyllion out of the «dead end» it claimed to have.
The issue, as you can see, has 2 different strands:
A) The Urban Planning, i.e. the land use of the site (this is the only thing that concerns the current issue). Our proposal is to reaffirm the 2021 Resolution (GPA) and seek a point amendment, which can be done more quickly than the overall GPA review, which is delayed. And, of course, to respond to the out-of-court letter sent to us by the Triphilion.
B) The other legal actions we can take, in relation to the ownership of the site, the actions of Trifyllion, the donation, etc. This will be discussed separately, will come back, at the next meeting. Of course, anyone who knows the case well and is ready to make a specific proposal can briefly say it today, in preparation for the second part. [We are in constant collaboration with the residents to prepare this leg B]
Please let us focus on the issue we are discussing today, i.e. the planning aspect.
Before I close, I would like to ask all colleagues for two things:
- Not to follow the inflammatory rhetoric of the Trifyllion Administration. It does not benefit the place, nor the substance of the matter. Those who have the law and justice on their side do not resort to such practices. With this rhetoric, they foster division. We need not follow them in this. We will, of course, respond to the reports, but with decorum. We will ask the relentless questions (e.g. why for 20 years they did nothing), but without belligerence. We will settle our differences civilly and legally, in the courts.
- Let us all rise to the occasion. The attitude of the major minority in the Municipal Committee, which did not vote in favour of our proposal, is throwing water into the mill of the developer. I hope tonight they will reconsider. We can't afford to have oppositional crowing on such serious issues. This is, quite literally, a historic moment for a neighborhood in our city and all of Alimos. At such times, we ought to have a united front as a city, in the face of serious issues, which, as a matter of course, should unite us. I hope that those in the minority who are used to attacking the majority will understand that this is not the time for such things and that as long as they «shoot» the majority, they end up pouring water into the mill of the developer and the anti-contractor.
Finally, Allow me to read you the commentary of one of our fellow citizens on this issue, which I think captures very clearly both the essence of the case and the pulse of society on this issue:
“Our mayor, do everything you can to prevent the conversion of the cultural center, as was always the destination of the building, into a condominium!!!! The bones of the founders (my father among them) and the members of the Building Society who donated all those lots for those purposes will be crunching !!!! The Kytherians, and I believe residents of the area, are with you in the effort to overturn the violation of the will of the donors !!!
(Note: all these plots of land belonged to the Cooperative and could have been sold.... and the much money that would have been generated would have been shared among the members of the Cooperative!!
But they did not take advantage of it, because they had a vision for their region, the beautiful area of Kytheria!!!!)
Thank you very much.”
