Community panels to vote on Bronx, Coney Island, Citi Field casino proposals this week

ALBANY – Five down. Three to go.

The final three bidders in the competition to land a lucrative downstate casino license face a huge hurdle this week when they ask neighborhood screening panels to allow their projects to go forward.

Casino proposals in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens will go before “Community Advisory Committees,” six-member panels that must vote on whether there is enough local support to advance the bid to the state Gaming Commission, which plans on awarding three licenses in December.

The projects must receive four votes to survive. It’s a requirement that already has quashed three separate casino bids in Manhattan.

Given the divergent views on casinos, state legislators said mandating some sort of community vote was crucial.

“It allows some sort of community oversight,” said Assemb. Gary Pretlow (D-Mount Vernon), chairman of the Assembly Gaming Committee.

“A casino is a big step in any community and the people who have a vested interest in the area — not just the people trying to make money — should have a say,” Pretlow said.

Notably, a community vote wasn’t mandated when four upstate casino licenses were awarded more than a decade ago. But siting a casino in densely populated areas was another thing, lawmakers said.

“I think it was because the locations of these first four were more rural areas,” said Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Queens), chairman of the Senate Gaming Committee. “When we started on the downstate casino licenses, the talk was they are more nestled in residential areas. It’s more complex, more dense. So we should have this extra layer because, frankly, colleagues of mine didn’t want them in certain areas.”

Winning community support has proved the highest hurdle for some.

In Manhattan, proposed casinos for Times Square, West Side and East Side each were voted down, 4-2.

In each instance, the projects were supported by appointees of Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Mayor Eric Adams but opposed by everyone appointed by a local official — borough president, city council member, state senator and state assemblyman.

"They had to convince four locally elected people a casino is good for their neighborhood” but couldn’t do so, said Bennett Liebman, a government law professor at Albany Law School of Union University and a former member of the state Racing and Wagering Commission, the forerunner of today’s state Gaming Commission.

In contrast, proposals for sites at Yonkers Raceway and Aqueduct Racetrack sailed through unanimously.

Each site has been conducting racing for decades and operating a video slots parlor for more than a decade. A casino would just be an expansion of existing operations and jobs, panelists said.

"For nearly 19 years, a racino has existed in Yonkers," said Joe Apicella, a Yonkers panel member, using the term for the combination racing-slots operations.

On Monday, the local advisory committees will cast votes on proposals for Ferry Point (Bronx) and Coney Island (Brooklyn). Public hearings for each have drawn rowdy, noisy, divided crowds. The Brooklyn Paper recently reported a majority of committee members have signaled they will vote no on the Coney Island proposal.

On Tuesday, the final project goes before a committee. Dubbed Metropolitan Park, it would be built near Citi Field by a group headed by Mets owner Steve Cohen.

Asked how the community advisory process has gone so far, Addabbo said: “It seems to have worked out well.”

“Some of my colleagues wanted this extra layer to say: 'Hey, when you build something the magnitude of a casino, there is a long-lasting impact on a community,’ " Addabbo said. “And this extra layer was community input.”

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy