The Saskatchewan Building and Accessibility Standards Appeal Board has denied the Capital Pointe developer’s application to stay the City’s order to fill in the hole.

The board heard arguments for a stay on the order on May 16.

Westgate Properties Ltd. Obtained for the building permits for the Capital Pointe project in 2015. The permit expired in September 2017. In a written decision, the board said the developer had excavated the building site and there is now a 17 metre excavation hole at the project.

Westgate was given a deadline of March 30 to state its intentions to move forward with the project. When the deadline passed, the City ordered the company to fill the hole. On April 3, the City issued the order on the grounds that the temporary shoring foundation in the excavation hole was only meant to last the winter and that it was unsafe. Westgate appealed the order on April 17.

In the hearing last week, Westgate revealed it had spent $14 million on the project. The company argued that filling in the hole would delay Capital Pointe development and cost the developer more money. However, the board said Friday that it was “not convinced this potential harm is either irreparable or inevitable.”

An appeal date has been set by the board for June 18 in Regina.