City proposal could expedite casino process
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A new city proposal could expedite the zoning process for potential New York City casinos, including ones that could come to Citi Field or Aqueduct Racetrack. Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia Commons
By Ryan Schwach
A proposal from the City Council and Adams administration released this week could potentially create a new zoning process for casinos in New York City, as several applicants hope to earn one of three new state casino licenses to bring a casino to the five boroughs.
In a joint statement from Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and City Planning Commissioner Dan Garodnick, the city said it will be proposing an individualized approach to considering zoning for casinos as the five boroughs want a fair shot at securing one of the state’s licenses.
The proposal, which will need to undergo its own public approval process, aims to make some city officials’ hopes of securing a license that much easier and more appealing in the eyes of the state. In addition to creating a pathway to rezone city land to build a casino, the proposal also would invite the public and elected officials to weigh in on developers’ gaming plans.
Currently, both Resorts World in South Queens and Mets owner Steve Cohen are among the groups vying for a casino license, which could be handed out by the end of the year.
“Casinos have the potential to bring jobs and economic opportunities to New Yorkers, but applicants within New York City are at a disadvantage today because the city does not currently have a mechanism in our land use regulations to properly review casino siting,” Speaker Adams and Garodnick said in their statement.
A new city proposal could expedite the zoning process for potential New York City casinos, including ones that could come to Citi Field or Aqueduct Racetrack. Photo by Tdorante10
“To ensure New York City applicants are not at a competitive disadvantage, the Department of City Planning and City Council will consider a standalone citywide zoning change that allows them to be judged within the guidelines of the state’s statutory process for considering casino license proposals,” they added. “The state process includes the required approval of each application by a separate six-person Community Advisory Committee, which includes local elected officials.”
Originally, the Adams administration proposed including the zoning proposal in its “City of YES” zoning text amendment.
That amendment, according to the city, is intended to provide more flexibility for local businesses to repurpose their spaces by removing geographic limitations for businesses including “nightlife.”
However, according to the speaker’s office, the City Council did not want casinos to be included in the tax amendment, and instead proposed a separate amendment, which they introduced on Friday.
The statement also outlined that the zoning proposal will need to go through its own process for approval.
“This citywide casino zoning proposal will be put forward as its own initiative to undergo public review, including required approval by the City Planning Commission, advisory review by all affected borough presidents and community boards, and approval by the City Council,” they said. “Details of the proposal will be forthcoming and enter the public review process before the end of the year.”
Queens State Senator Joseph Addabbo, the chair of the Senate’s Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering, and a major proponent of the downstate licenses, sees promise in the city’s proposal, and hopes it will streamline the process of bringing a casino – or two – to the city..
“I am hopeful that the intent of the speaker and city planning goes to the target of addressing really the major hurdle, expediting the downstate license process,” Addabbo told the Eagle on Friday. “If I read this statement right, this process that they have in mind, the city should go right to the heart of the problem, which is expediting the downstate license process, and keeping the integrity of the process intact.”
Addabbo has been a long time proponent of casinos in the five boroughs, and Resorts World resided in his district up until last year’s redistricting removed it. He said he believes that casinos bring economic benefits and worries that the city could lose out on those benefits should developers have a difficult time getting a casino approved within the city’s limits. .
“We want to expedite the process because obviously, [we are] still on the shelf with the three licenses,” he said. “The delay is the fact that we can’t create thousands of construction jobs, thousands of post construction jobs, billions in educational funding, and much needed MTA funding.”
Queens State Senator Joseph Addabbo hopes a new city proposal expedites the process for casinos coming into the five boroughs, particularly to Queens. Photo via Addabbo/New York State Senate
For months, where the state will allocate the three available downstate licenses has hung over the heads of hopeful licensees and elected officials, and Addabbo wants to see it speed up.
“We have to quicken the pace of these downstate licenses,” he said.
But not everyone is ready to ante up for casinos in their backyard.
There have been several protests, mainly in Flushing, against Cohen’s hopes of putting a casino in Citi Field’s parking lot. Opponents of the plan say they worry the project will have a negative environmental impact and stoke gambling addictions in the surrounding communities.
The pushback has included some elected officials as well, including Addabbo’s Senate colleague Jessica Ramos, who hasn’t been especially eager to give Cohen what he wants.
Though Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry earlier this year introduced a bill in the Assembly to clear the way for Cohen’s casino, Ramos declined to introduce the bill’s companion in the Senate and said she wouldn’t do so until the public had been given an opportunity to voice its opinion on the project.
But Addabbo, who was a member of the local community board when Resorts World New York City was approved in the 1990s, says there should be little concern about bringing a casino to town.
“I lived through it, the naysayers and the fear of Resorts World coming in,” he said, recalling fears of crime, prostitution and traffic stemming from the casino creating havoc in the otherwise quiet suburban area.
“What we got was a great neighbor for 11 years so far, contributing to community events, giving some funding to some nonprofits, employing local people,” he said.
Regardless, any and all local opinions on casinos will be considered in the state’s licensing process once the bids are selected, something Addabbo is all for.
“This is something new, that the community gets to approve or disapprove of a casino in their backyard,” he said. “We're having the community have the first say and whether that proposal for the casino can go to the next step.”
