Appeal board says developer must fill Capital Pointe hole

The company behind Capital Pointe has been ordered to fill 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 developed beyond the gaping hole that replaced the iconic 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 decision states that Westgate Properties Ltd. must fully comply with the order, which involves securing any required 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 said it is "prepared to move forward with filling the hole," should Westgate Properties not comply with the timeline. 

However, the city would not clarify how it intended to pay to fill the 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 an emailed statement. ​

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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 permanent protection 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" dated April 3, 2018 to Westgate. The order required Westgate to backfill the excavation by April 30, 2018.

This resulted in three prior decisions 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 email for a "brief adjournment."

"The City opposed the request, stating that Westgate had ample time to prepare for the hearing which had been adjourned once already to accommodate Westgate."

The city then called 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."