\nHIGHLAND MILLS, N.Y. \u2013 The prospects of a Las Vegas-style Hard Rock Casino with a 400-room hotel, conference center and high-end restaurant wedged between Route 17 and the Thruway near the Harriman train station could be a financial boon for Woodbury and nearby communities, proponents say.<\/p>\n
\tAmong the benefits: Ten percent of the casino\u2019s \u201coff-the-top\u201d revenues would be split between Orange County and Woodbury, with the village of Woodbury receiving 3.25 percent of the cut, generating enough money to significantly lower residential property taxes.<\/p>\n
\tThe casino developer would finance off-site infrastructure enhancements, including water and sewer capacity expansions, as well as extensive road improvements. In addition, the casino would create jobs with an average annual salary of $45,000 while also funneling property, hotel and sales tax revenues into local municipalities\u2019 coffers.<\/p>\n
\tBut it would all come with a price, critics contend: Woodbury would never be the same again.<\/p>\n
\tAnd if the initial smattering of opinion at Thursday\u2019s village of Woodbury Board of Trustees meeting is an indication of the broader public view, that is a price too high.<\/p>\n
\tAll seven public-comment speakers opposed the prospective casino, citing concerns about traffic, crime, grime and an \u201cearth-shaking\u201d transformation of the village and surrounding communities.<\/p>\n
\tWoodbury Mayor Michael Queenan told a \u201cdisappointing\u201d turnout of about 30 people at the meeting that he has been contacted in the last 10 days by Cordish Companies of Baltimore and Penn National Gaming of Wyomissing, Pa. Both, he said, are interested in building a casino on a 130-acre undeveloped tract just north of the Harriman Metro-North train station, east of Route 17 and west of the Thruway.<\/p>\n
\tThe adjacent 132-acre former Nepera plant in Harriman is also being considered as a potential casino site, although Queenan could not say if Cordish Cos., Penn National or \u201ca third casino (developer) that is out there\u201d is the interested party.<\/p>\n
\tQueenan said Cordish and Penn National need the village to issue letters indicating the board is willing to consider a casino proposal. The developers must submit the letters to the New York Gaming Commission\u2019s newly created five-member Casino Selection Board by April 1, which will select four new casino sites in the Capital District, Catskills and Southern Tier.<\/p>\n
\tThe board must make its decision at its March 13 meeting, Queenan said, noting there are still many questions that need answers.<\/p>\n
\tCasino developers make pitch in Woodbury; residents say, \u2018No dice\u2019<\/p>\n
\tBy Mid-Hudson News Network<\/p>\n
\tHIGHLAND MILLS, N.Y. \u2013 The prospects of a Las Vegas-style Hard Rock Casino with a 400-room hotel, conference center and high-end restaurant wedged between Route 17 and the Thruway near the Harriman train station could be a financial boon for Woodbury and nearby communities, proponents say.<\/p>\n
\tAmong the benefits: Ten percent of the casino\u2019s \u201coff-the-top\u201d revenues would be split between Orange County and Woodbury, with the village of Woodbury receiving 3.25 percent of the cut, generating enough money to significantly lower residential property taxes.<\/p>\n
\tThe casino developer would finance off-site infrastructure enhancements, including water and sewer capacity expansions, as well as extensive road improvements. In addition, the casino would create jobs with an average annual salary of $45,000 while also funneling property, hotel and sales tax revenues into local municipalities\u2019 coffers.<\/p>\n
\tBut it would all come with a price, critics contend: Woodbury would never be the same again.<\/p>\n
\tAnd if the initial smattering of opinion at Thursday\u2019s village of Woodbury Board of Trustees meeting is an indication of the broader public view, that is a price too high.<\/p>\n
\tAll seven public-comment speakers opposed the prospective casino, citing concerns about traffic, crime, grime and an \u201cearth-shaking\u201d transformation of the village and surrounding communities.<\/p>\n
\tWoodbury Mayor Michael Queenan told a \u201cdisappointing\u201d turnout of about 30 people at the meeting that he has been contacted in the last 10 days by Cordish Companies of Baltimore and Penn National Gaming of Wyomissing, Pa. Both, he said, are interested in building a casino on a 130-acre undeveloped tract just north of the Harriman Metro-North train station, east of Route 17 and west of the Thruway.<\/p>\n
\tThe adjacent 132-acre former Nepera plant in Harriman is also being considered as a potential casino site, although Queenan could not say if Cordish Cos., Penn National or \u201ca third casino (developer) that is out there\u201d is the interested party.<\/p>\n
\tQueenan said Cordish and Penn National need the village to issue letters indicating the board is willing to consider a casino proposal. The developers must submit the letters to the New York Gaming Commission\u2019s newly created five-member Casino Selection Board by April 1, which will select four new casino sites in the Capital District, Catskills and Southern Tier.<\/p>\n
\tThe board must make its decision at its March 13 meeting, Queenan said, noting there are still many questions that need answers.<\/p>\n
\tQueenan said his \u201cNo. 1 concern\u201d is traffic.<\/p>\n
\tWoodbury is already ensnarled in traffic generated by the 220-store Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets, clogging the nearby confluence of routes 32, 17, 6 and the Thruway.<\/p>\n
\tA $72 million redesign of routes 17 and 32, including building a southbound loop to the Thruway from Route 32, scheduled to begin this spring, has been delayed until 2017 for lack of money.<\/p>\n
\tBut, as village Trustee Timothy Egan said, \u201cMoney doesn\u2019t buy everything. I have a feeling that any improvements (casino developers) make would be offset by the improvements we have to make\u201d to accommodate the impacts, noting his neighbors and constituents \u201cdidn\u2019t move here because they thought it would be a casino town.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019m just trying to have a positive discussion,\u201d Queenan said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to deal with what people see in the movies, with urban myths, I want to deal with facts \u2013 and we don\u2019t have all the facts yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCentral Valley resident John Baranowski said the board\u2019s decision really shouldn\u2019t be difficult.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf you send that letter, you\u2019re saying, \u2018We\u2019re willing to consider changing this community forever\u2019,\u201d Baranowski said. \u201cDon\u2019t send the letter. Let <\/p>\n
\tA casino project \u201cmight get it pushed up,\u201d Queenan said. \u201cIf (a casino) was approved, the state might see the wisdom in picking this up; they want the revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOther potential benefits include adding a second Metro-North rail line, building a new fire department substation and having the money to continue battling the village of Kiryas Joel in court over its plan to build a pipeline through Woodbury and, Queenan said, challenge an annexation request from the Hasidic community that he fears \u201cwe\u2019ll be hearing about soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe bottom line, he said, is the money Woodbury could reap from a casino deal would be hard to turn down.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIf they want to come and play here, they\u2019d have to foot the bill,\u201d Queenan said. \u201cWe could be in a position where we never have to go to bond again. We could have a year, depending on the year they have, that we have no taxes at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut, as village Trustee Timothy Egan said, \u201cMoney doesn\u2019t buy everything. I have a feeling that any improvements (casino developers) make would be offset by the improvements we have to make\u201d to accommodate the impacts, noting his neighbors and constituents \u201cdidn\u2019t move here because they thought it would be a casino town.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HIGHLAND MILLS, N.Y. \u2013 The prospects of a Las Vegas-style Hard Rock Casino with a 400-room hotel, conference center and high-end restaurant wedged between Route 17 and the Thruway near the Harriman train station could be a financial boon for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}