Leominster Sets Date For Slots Vote

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Swiftly moving forward with plans that would allow a casino developer to build the state’s only slots parlor in Leominster, the City Council voted Monday night to send the plan to voters on Sept. 24.

Mayor Dean Mazzarella, who signed a host community agreement with Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. last week, said the next step in the process is to have a technical review meeting with various city departments to determine their concerns and what the developer would need to do to move forward.

City Council President Susan Chalifoux Zephir sent a letter to the mayor on Saturday, asking for the completion of impact studies before the referendum.

She asked that several issues be addressed through the studies, including:

The potential impact of increased traffic congestion around the facility;
Whether local businesses’ revenues would be affected by the development;
How the project would affect demands on existing services such as wastewater treatment and drinking water availability; and
Property values.

Mazzarella said those issues have been addressed with Cordish in the host agreement and he expects the city to help complete those studies before the vote.

Mazzarella said the proposed 125,000-square-foot slots parlor, which would include restaurants and performance space, is smaller than the Wal-Mart store, which is on Jungle Road, the same road as the proposed gaming site. He also said the slots parlor is expected to generate half as much traffic as the store, and that when Wal-Mart was built, the developer built intersections and other infrastructure that could support other major projects.

“They took into consideration all that could be built down there,” Mazzarella said.

'Nothing but a positive experience'

On Friday, Mazzarella traveled to Cordish’s Maryland Live! Casino to witness one of the company’s developments firsthand. He visited for the day with Fire Chief Robert Sideleau, Police Chief Robert Healey and Ken Ansin, a senior vice president for Enterprise Bank. He said the concerns frequently mentioned by opponents of the slots parlor such as increases in crime, prostitution and traffic in the area were not seen there.

“We didn’t see the huge traffic problems that we sort of anticipated, to some extent. We saw unbelievable security,” Mazzarella said. “We just didn’t see things that we were told we would see. We were talking to the people who are there all day, every day.”

He said the group talked with the police lieutenant assigned to the casino, which opened in June 2012, as well as the local chamber of commerce and businesses such as florists bringing flowers to the casino and the company who handles valet parking there.

Mazzarella said the county executive they spoke with echoed what others there said.

“She said it’s been nothing but a positive experience for them and it’s been a home run for them,” he said.

“I left thinking that a lot of the things I’ve first heard about casinos …were pretty much dispelled. I didn’t find those things to be valid.”

Cordish has said it would spend $200 million on a slots parlor. According to the company’s host agreement with the city, the company would contribute at least $3.8 million to the city annually. Cordish is going up against proposals in Millbury, Plainville, Raynham and Tewksbury for the state’s single slots license. If voters approve the Leominster plan, Cordish has until Oct. 4 to submit its final proposal to the state Gaming Commission.

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