Concern about legal fees racking up over KED

Concern about legal fees racking up over KED WATCH: A Sudbury city councillor is concerned about the money being spent on the Kingsway Entertainment District case. Molly Frommer reports

SUDBURY – City Councillor Mark Signoretti has always been opposed to the Kingsway Entertainment District being a city-financed project, and was a supporter of having a new arena built downtown.

October 29 at city council, he mentioned his concerns.

"We're spending a significant amount of dollars on getting this ready without knowing outcomes of superior court and LPAT… so there's a lot of unknowns and I want to make it clear that I'm very concerned about doing more work on this without knowing those unknowns," said Signoretti.

The city has already spent over half a million dollars in legal fees as it tries to fight off the LPAT appeal and the court case.

Aside from those fees, the city has so far spent $2.2 million dollars of taxpayer's money on the Kingsway Entertainment District project.

"We started off on the original business case, and the site selection, we've also spent on integrated site design, professional fees and detailed design… we've spent on legal fees and we've also spent on cost sharing for a basketball floor," explained David Shelsted, City of Greater Sudbury.

And while the LPAT hearing doesn't come up until May, Shelsted says the city is continuing to spend money.

"The professional fees, in terms of legal fees and detailed engineering, we continue to bring the projects to a shovel ready status so when we do get a decision, we can proceed with construction," he said.

Local developer Dario Zulish says he believes the city will fight this appeal and court case with all possible resources, otherwise every council decision going forward could be challenged by people and groups who don't support certain projects, or feel they are biased or affected by influence.