Churchill Downs Inc. is shifting ahead with a gaming venue in Virginia’s Henrico County the place historic horse racing (HHR) machines will function. The venture has generated criticism from an area county official.
A rendering of Henrico Gaming, a deliberate historic horse racing gaming venue in Virginia from Churchill Downs, Inc. A neighborhood official has criticized the Richmond gaming venture for seemingly making an attempt to evade a newly carried out zoning ordinance. (Picture: Churchill Downs, Inc.)
Kentucky-based Churchill Downs acquired the Colonial Downs Racetrack, six Rosie’s Gaming Emporium HHR amenities, and 5 extra HHR alternatives throughout the commonwealth by way of its 2022 acquisition of Peninsula Pacific Leisure (P2E). Churchill filed plans on June 18 to renovate a former furnishings and mattress retailer positioned within the Staples Mill Buying Middle in Richmond right into a enterprise referred to as Henrico Gaming.
Henrico Gaming, per the venture’s software made with Henrico County, seeks to position 175 HHR machines contained in the 25,000-square-foot facility that’s between a Virginia ABC liquor retailer and a Subway restaurant.
The procuring middle, positioned at Staples Mill Rd. and Glenside Dr., is zoned to permit parimutuel wagering, which HHR machines are categorised as, however county officers are working to change the approval course of for such gaming by updating zoning guidelines.
Zoning Ordinance
The Staples Mill Buying Middle is positioned inside a enterprise district zoned as “B-2.” In accordance with the Henrico County authorities web site, such a enterprise district is meant to offer workplace area, retail procuring, eating places, fuel stations, and reside/work dwellings.
A B-2 zone moreover permits for an organization possessing a parimutuel or HHR wagering license to function such a enterprise. Underneath Henrico’s present zoning guidelines, an HHR venue can home as much as 175 machines with no need to use and purchase a provisional-use allow (PUP) from the county.
In Could, the Henrico County Board of Supervisors initiated proceedings to advance an ordinance that will require a PUP to be obtained for any HHR enterprise throughout the county whatever the variety of machines. The county supervisors permitted the rule change throughout their June 15 assembly, seven days after Churchill submitted its software for Henrico Gaming.
Supervisor Upset
Following the supervisors’ vote, HHR developments of any variety of gaming positions should now underdog a PUP public listening to. Nevertheless, since its bid was submitted earlier than the ordinance was endorsed by the county supervisors, the Churchill Downs venture below county legislation will probably be grandfathered from the PUP situation.
Henrico County Supervisor Dan Schmitt, who represents Henrico’s Brookland District the place Churchill is planning Henrico Gaming, says the corporate purposely utilized forward of the zoning change in a transfer that reveals it isn’t dedicated to being an upstanding neighborhood companion. Schmitt stated Churchill was making an attempt “to jam this enterprise into the situation” earlier than the PUP ordinance was enacted.
These of us of this county weigh in throughout PUP processes on far much less intrusive objects, together with the hours a retailer can function,” Schmitt stated through the county supervisors’ assembly earlier this month. “The residents I characterize deserve the correct to weigh in if there’s going to be a playing institution of their neighborhood.”
Schmitt urged Churchill to rescind its software and reapply below the brand new PUP guidelines.
“The applicant has the chance to indicate their consciousness of what it takes to be a trusted neighborhood companion and take part within the public course of,” Schmitt declared.
