Appeal board says developer must fill Capital Pointe hole

Thecompany behind Capital Pointehas been ordered tofill the hole on the corner of Albert Street and Victoria Avenue by March 31.

Saskatchewan's Building and Accessibility Standards Appeal Board concluded in a decision signed Monday that, "back-filling is the most appropriate remedy in these circumstances."

The luxury condominium project was first announced in 2009 and was supposed to be complete by 2015,but the corner was never developedbeyond thegaping hole that replacedtheiconic Plains Hotel.

"There has been no building activity for some time and there are no current permits nor any applications for permits. There is no one on site. There is no indication that building will resume any time soon and the building site appears to be effectively abandoned," the board's decision said.

The board also noted there "is no longer an engineer-of-record and no apparent monitoring of the excavation. This is of obvious and serious concern."

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The decisionstates thatWestgateProperties Ltd. must fully comply with the order, which involves securing anyrequired permits,back-filling, compacting and leveling of the building site to bring it to street grade, as well as "removing the encumbrances on the adjacent road rights of way."

City says it will fill the hole if company won't

The City of Regina saidit is "prepared to move forward with filling the hole," shouldWestgateProperties not comply with the timeline.

However, thecity would not clarify how it intended to pay to fillthe hole.

"We understand public frustration given the prominent location of the site and ask for your patience as the City continues to work within its legal authority," a spokesperson said in anemailedstatement.

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This appeal board's decision is a reversal of a previous decision in 2018,which gave the developer three options:

• To"commence, continue, and carry out construction of the project to completion," so long as construction resumed by April 1 2018 and was completed by March 2022.
• To build permanentprotection to the shoring on the site.
• To backfill the site.

City ordered company to fill hole last April

The city of Regina had first issued an "order to comply" datedApril 3, 2018 to Westgate. The orderrequired Westgateto backfill the excavation by April 30, 2018.

Thisresulted in three priordecisions of the Appeal Board and the Court Judgment, which is why the rehearing on Jan. 25, 2019 was necessary, according to the decision.

The board had previously determined facts of the matter, including that "the Board did not find an immediate unsafe circumstance existed but nevertheless found that the present state of affairs could not continue indefinitely because safety issues could be reasonably expected to arise in the future."

Westgate did not attend the rehearing and asked via emailfor a "brief adjournment."

"The Cityopposed the request, stating that Westgate had ample time to prepare for the hearingwhich had been adjourned once already to accommodate Westgate."

The city thencalled three witnesses who presented new evidence at the hearing in Westgate's absence.

"The City argued that the only appropriate order was to back-fill the excavation and, since the Order under appeal required back-filling, the only appropriate variation would be a change in date."