Public support shifting to one project in Richmond casino sweepstakes

 

The competition for the city’s single casino license is heating up.

With time running out for the three companies pursuing a casino resort in Richmond, project backers and residents across the city are continuing to pitch their support or opposition to the projects.

As a city evaluation panel is expected to select a preferred project next month, followed by a City Council vote in June on whether to hold a referendum on the project in November, public favor is beginning to coalesce behind one of the projects and against the other two.

In a letter sent Thursday to Richmond Mayor Lear Stone and the evaluation panel reviewing the three project proposals, Prudence Justin, president of the Inter Park Residents Association, said 94% of respondents to a recent neighborhood survey opposed a casino at the Movie land property.

“Because so many of our residents feel strongly that the presence of a large casino-resort so close to our neighborhood would be contrary to the interest of the neighborhood, the Board of Directors has taken the further step of formally opposing this site as well,” the letter states.

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In a statement responding to the association’s opposition to the project, Cornish spokeswoman Capri Furman said the project is expected to generate the most tax revenue. She also said the company, in response to public feedback, is exploring the option of maintaining a movie theater in its new development.카지노사이트

Meanwhile, residents from the Stafford Hills area are continuing public protests against the proposed Bally’s casino near the Chippendale and Po white parkways, while helping promote supporters of the Urban One casino resort project in an industrial area on the property off Commerce Road currently owned by Philip Morris USA.

While Cornish and Bally’s face public resistance in the communities where they plan to build, 8th District Councilwoman Reva Trammel said her constituents are overwhelmingly supportive of the One project.

“The emails, the phone calls and texts; they’re all saying they want it. They want the jobs and to keep real estate taxes down. The main thing they’re also saying is that it’s not in a neighborhood,” she said in an interview at an event the company held Thursday.

Rodney Hall, a retired schoolteacher who lives in the district and attended Thursday’s event, said there have not been public protests or organized opposition to the One project.