Now that the Kingsway Entertainment District is dead, the Minnow Lake Restoration Group has requested an end to court proceedings related to the project which they initiated.
As Minnow Lake Restoration Group president John Lindsay noted earlier this week, it’s a “moot point” at this time.
The KED was a proposed municipal arena/events centre to accompany a private casino and hotel on a shared property on The Kingsway. City council unanimously voted it down on Tuesday due to its cost more than doubling to $215 million.
The Minnow Lake Restoration Group had their day in court in April, at which time lawyer Eric Gillespie argued on their behalf that city council and city staff did not follow proper procedure in the lead-up to last year’s go/no-go decision on the KED.
The three judiciaries who presided over the judicial review have yet to issue their decision.
“The purpose of the application was to have the court determine that an earlier KED resolution allowing the project to move forward was invalid,” Gillespie said in a media release issued Thursday.
“As our client asked the court to direct, council reopened the discussion and looked at current information. This was all our client was asking for. This has now happened, and the result clearly speaks for itself. There is no need to continue with the application as what was being requested has already been achieved.”
Gillespie added, “when a party has achieved 100 per cent success it is not necessary for an application to proceed further.”
In addition to a verdict, the judges are also expected to make a determination regarding who should cover legal costs. The city submitted a partial indemnity claim of $37,041 and the Minnow Lake Restoration Group submitted a claim of $29,407.
In most court cases, the losing party covers the winning side’s partial indemnity claim, but the Minnow Lake Restoration Group applied for the case to be considered Public Interest Litigation. If their application is successful and Minnow Lake is unsuccessful in the judicial review, they will not have to pay the city’s $37,041 claim.
As its name implies, partial indemnity claims cover only part of the costs parties in legal matters incur. In the city’s case, they have spent approximately $54,000 on the Minnow Lake Restoration Group legal challenge and $770,000 in legal costs associated with the KED to date.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
