Provincial tribunal to rule on Kingsway Entertainment District by end of 2020

We should know the fate of Sudbury's controversial Kingsway Entertainment District before the end of this year.

The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal will hear the case against the proposed arena and casino complex at a public hearing on May 5 at Tom Davies Square. 

Tribunal staff say that by law, the adjudicating panel has to issue a decision by Dec.5, 2020.

Now, that ruling could just be to send the issue back to Sudbury city council for further debate. 

It was back in June 2017 when city council first voted to build a new arena on the Kingsway lands owned by Sudbury Wolves owner Dario Zulich.

The development has been stalled since then, with citizens opposed to the location and expanding casino gambling appealing the local decision to the provincial tribunal. 

May is looking to be a busy month for provincial planning hearings in Greater Sudbury.

On Wednesday, a hearing to decide the future of a 400-home subdivision overlooking Ramsey Lake was scheduled for May 25.

Greater Sudbury city council originally turned down Dalron's plans for the rocky hill off Howey Drive in 2012. 

But last year, the city and the developer reached an agreement to see the project go ahead.

"We are looking at this proposed settlement agreement and finding it to be totally inadequate to answer our original concerns," says John Lindsay, one of the three Sudburians, who were originally on the side of the city, that are now appealing to the province to get the development scrapped.

Another Dalron subdivision is still awaiting a decision from the planning tribunal.

It's a 221-home lakefront development on McCharles Lake in Naughton that was rejected by Sudbury city council back in 2010.

Some appeals to the provincial tribunal, formerly known as the Ontario Municipal Board, taken even longer than that.

The tribunal recently ruled in the City of Greater Sudbury's favour on an expropriation case dating back to 1999.