6 issues dropped in proceedings against Sudbury's Kingsway Entertainment District

Sudbury's controversial Kingsway Entertainment District could finally be seeing some movement.

Earlier in July, the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal announced it is moving forward with the KED, however, the tribunal removed six of the 28 issues, saying the tribunal does not have jurisdiction over half-a-dozen issues brought forward by the appellants.

Both the Sudbury BIA and Tom Fortin, with Casino Free Sudbury say even with the dropped issues, they're still feeling confident. 

Both groups have been vocal in their opposition about the KED since last year.

However, Fortin says they might bring the case to the superior court sooner rather than later — Fortin and the BIA filed a notice of application against the city with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice back in April, on the issue that the city was bias in its decisions about the KED.

"It's unlikely we'd wait till LPAT comes through with a decision, you know, we're determined that the bias issue is going to be heard and we don't know the venue yet and once the LPAT is no longer, you know it's not a possibility of being heard there then we'll seriously consider the superior court route," said Fortin.

Jeff MacIntyre says the BIA is also confident in the process and no decisions have been made about bringing the case to the superior court yet.

"Extremely confident, things are still exactly where we expected them to be at this point, taking a little longer than we'd like but going along the route that we kind of assumed things would go," said MacIntrye.

MacIntrye says he hopes the fight will end through the LPAT, rather than going to court, although it is still an option.

The City of Greater Sudbury is also feeling confident in the process, after the 6 issues were dropped and a case management conference was announced.  

"You know, all indications as of today are looking positive, as I've said all along we need to follow the LPAT process and we'll know more on August 8 at the case management conference," said Sudbury's Mayor, Brian Bigger.

The case management conference will include the city, the Sudbury BIA, Tom Fortin and developer Dario Zulich.