A short press release on the official site (not as short as the one saying that Andy Johnson's gone to Fulham - he has, for an initial fee of £10.5 million) states that the club are 'disappointed' by the decision and that they will "now engage in detailed discussions with our development partners, KBC and Tesco, to assess what options are open to us."
And whilst the club are also keen to stress that the project has not been shelved indefinitely, it's difficult to see how it will ever go ahead now.
We've already seen how the costs have gone from Keith Wyness' initial estimate of "effectively free" to anywhere in the region of around £78 million.
And if the 'calling in' process takes 12-18 months, as these planning applications often do, what will the costs have risen to by then?
It's been an awful summer for the board with the lack of transfer activity, the shock departure of Keith Wyness, David Moyes' 'dithering' (way-hay!) over his new contract and now the 'calling-in' of the Kirkby project.
It will be interesting to see how the club react to this latest body blow.
It is to be hoped that they do have some sort of contingency plan, particularly in securing team-building finances as the board have been suggesting for some time now that this will all be directly linked to the Kirkby project going ahead.
Or maybe it will be as Keith Wyness so eloquently put it this time last year: "There is no Plan B. There is no other option."