January 9, 2010 By MICHELE YOUNG Daily News Staff Reporter
The $25-million casino planned for 500-block Lansdowne could be essentially dissolved by City council Tuesday. City staff are recommending the rezoning application and development permit for the proposal be rescinded as the proponent, Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Inc., hasn't met off-site work requirements. The City granted the rezoning and development permit in September, 2008, despite objections from the social planning council over the additional gambling and from the Royal Canadian Legion over parking spaces. City community development manager Randy Lambright said Friday the casino proposal included a right-of-way agreement so that the casino's entrance would overlap onto City property. "They needed to submit a right-of-way agreement to fulfill the terms of the rezoning," he said.
Gateway has informed the City it is not moving forward with the development of a new casino here due to economic conditions. Instead, it will keep its Lake City Casino operation at its current space inside the Executive Inn. The new plan would have taken up the entire 500 block of Lansdowne, increasing in size from its current 1,300 square metres to 4,181 square metres. It would have also included a restaurant, office space and underground parking. The number of slot machines would have increased from 300 to 450, and the number of gaming tables was to go from eight to 18. Lambright noted the public hearing was held Sept. 30, 2008. "So, technically, that bylaw is hanging out in limbo. It hasn't been adopted." If Gateway didn't build on the site within two years, provincial legislation would have cancelled the development permit.The City doesn't like to leave rezoned lots empty for too long, either."Over time, circumstances change," he said. Those changes can be anything from traffic patterns to zoning requirements. "We try not to have these things hanging on the books for too long because things change," Lambright explained. "They're caught up in that limbo."
In this case, if City council doesn't rescind the rezoning and development permit, it will have a casino inside the Executive Inn and a large lot right beside it that would allow another casino. "We don't want two casino lots." When Gateway is ready to build the new casino, the company will have to apply all over again. "So this goes back in front of council, gets rescinded, and we've rolled back the clock to prior to when they rezoned." Calls to Lake City and Gateway officials were not returned Friday afternoon.
