Keene, New Hampshire’s Metropolis Council might approve new restrictions subsequent month on the place gaming properties could be positioned. The doubtless zones for casinos will likely be within the metropolis’s industrial district.
Keene, N.H., downtown gazebo, pictured above. Metropolis officers are planning to limit on line casino places. (Picture: Visiting New England)
Council members are working to forestall charitable casinos from many downtown areas, in keeping with the Keene Sentinel, a neighborhood information outlet.
On line casino Restrictions
The brand new ordinance would place many different restrictions on casinos. Metropolis officers are planning to control the scale of casinos. The present proposal says they need to be at the least 10,000 sq. ft. An earlier proposal put their minimal dimension at 20,000 sq. ft.
The latest plan additionally says how shut they are often to varsities, spiritual websites, and residential properties, the report added.
Casinos doubtless can’t be positioned inside 200 ft of a home of worship, daycare middle, or faculty. Additionally they can’t be sited inside 250 ft of a residence. Only one on line casino could be on quite a bit and casinos should be 500 ft or extra from each other.
I’d say most likely the most important change is that … it didn’t essentially make sense … for a charitable gaming facility to happen within the downtown progress district,” Keene Senior Planner Mari Brunner stated final week.
“The … downtown progress [zone] is meant for a extra walkable, pedestrian-oriented setting,” Brunner added.
Keene Neighborhood Growth Director Jesse Rounds defined that casinos result in extra site visitors and the necessity for elevated parking.
The areas that casinos could be positioned embody West Road, from Island Road to the bypass, Winchester Road, south of Island Road and north of Cornwell Drive, Important Road south of Route 101 and north of Silent Approach, and Ash Brook Street, the Sentinel reported. Key Street and Package Road are additionally allowed places.
Metropolis officers will subsequent contemplate the on line casino laws throughout Sept. 11 and 19 conferences.
Just one single gaming property, Marvel On line casino, is working in Keene. It might stay at its present location regardless of new laws, in keeping with present plans.
Property Proprietor Complains
The proposed ordinance is hampering plans for a on line casino in Keene’s Central Sq..
Native property proprietor Dorrie Masten claimed the brand new laws happened after she proposed a brand new on line casino for that neighborhood.
I’m hoping town permits charitable gaming wherever in our downtown,” Masten was quoted by the New Hampshire Enterprise Evaluation final yr. “Wherever, whether or not or not it’s my property or another person’s property. There at the moment isn’t any restriction, and there wasn’t a restriction till I requested about it and put in an utility.”
