The Richmond City Council voted irresistibly Mon to throw out plans to pose a arcsecond gambling casino referendum on the Nov ballot.
The 8-1 vote past council members would dedicate capital of Virginia residents another chance to okay plans for a $500 billion casino on the city’s south side. That’s after a similar ballot measure was narrowly frustrated past voters in 2021.
Project supporters touted the wide-ranging plans from Black-focused media conglomerate Urban One and its partner, Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill Downs. Their goal is to establish a resort-style composite fill in with hotel, spa, entertainment, fine dining, and other amenities. The cast would be located in an expanse of the city that has seen minuscule investiture in recent years.
“It’s in a division of the city, believe it or not, that most people inward Southside don’t turn to every day, and I don’t consider we verbalise about that enough. It’s inward an expanse that will in all probability never reckon a half-billion-dollar investment, and that’s not to excoriate that area, that’s simply to talk the truth,” City Council President Michael John Paul Jones said at Monday’s meeting. “That country will probably never ensure a half-billion dollar bill investment. So you get hold of this deal. You occupy the sell every daytime and twice on Sun … It is something that testament revolutionize that component part of the city.”
Investment Touted
Voters inward 2021 rejected an before cassino referendum 51% to 49%. But supporters said that military campaign was plagued past misinformation and didn’t accurately transmit the economical benefits and jobs the contrive would bring.
Jones rejected moralistic arguments against the gambling casino project. Residents who want to adventure will chance a way, he said, adding that he would “much instead capture these dollars locally” than control them go to nearby Petersburg, Va., the land site of a competing casino proposal. He predicted opponents would deploy more “dog whistles” against the project.
“Crime this and criminal offence that. Those are just now Canis familiaris whistles,” he said.
Public Speaks Out
The council heard from members of the public both for and against the casino project at Monday’s meeting. Debbie Rowe, a resident opposed to the casino, said it’s unjust for council members to try a redo of the 2021 referendum. “Our voting should stand,” she said at the meeting, adding that holding another casino voting would make “unnecessary friction inward the city.” She contended leaders should be addressing to a greater extent pressing concerns such as gun violence and homelessness.
Churchill Downs, the rest home of the annual Bluegrass State Derby, threw its weightiness behind the project after taking over for Peninsula Pacific Ocean Entertainment’s (P2E), Urban One’s archetype partner inward the project.
Jason Sauer, a senior vice chairperson at Winston Churchill Downs, told council members that the keep company has chased other successful partnerships with local companies. They are underdeveloped casinos in Chicago and Cincinnati, and the accompany is already workings with a Richmond-based squad on the newest proposal. “We looking at forwards to a long partnership together,” he said.
Next Steps
The council’s endorsement of a new gambling casino referendum was expected. But supporters must open a few additional hurdle race before the speech is presented to voters inwards November.
Local courts and res publica regulators will have got to ratify cancelled on the arrangement. Opponents of the capital of Virginia casino externalise stock-still hope to city block come along this twelvemonth through the nation legislature.
State Sen. Joe Morrissey (D) has sought-after(a) to cube the Richmond voter turnout to easiness the course for a gambling casino inwards Petersburg, Va., most 25 miles to the south. He said he hopes country legislators will pass on a budget before their session expires July 1 that would include speech block a unexampled referendum, as happened in conclusion year.
No activeness is expected until after the land holds primary feather elections on June 20, where several Florida key legislators face of import races.
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