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Casino gets zoning board approval
By MEG BERNHARDT
Evening Sun Reporter
Article Launched:10/12/2006 09:53:03 AM EDT
Although zoning hearing board members expressed reservations over the applicant's traffic-impact study, a casino proposed near Gettysburg received approval Wednesday night.
The Straban Township's zoning hearing board ruled Crossroads Gaming Resort and Spa is permitted by the commercial highway zoning in place at the site of the proposed slots parlor, near routes 15 and 30, as long as Crossroads meets 10 conditions.
Developer Crossroads Gaming Resort and Spa LP has already received preliminary planning approval from the township, but it's still waiting on its most important approval – the awarding of a gambling license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
The casino is one of five applicants for two licenses for stand-alone slots parlors outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
And Crossroads CEO David LeVan thinks the zoning approval will help show the Gaming Control Board that Crossroads is the best applicant for one of those licenses because the project can legally be built as planned.
'Weak, very weak'
After three closed meetings for deliberations, the board decided Wednesday night the project fit commercial highway zoning under the special-exception criteria.
But zoning hearing board members chastised the township for allowing a traffic study they considered to be subpar.
Vice-chairman Ed Gillespie called the traffic study "weak, very weak." He said the zoning ordinance requires projects generating more than 3,000 trips per day to do a study with a 2-mile radius.
But in this case, the township's engineers – including the Mechanicsburg-based traffic engineering firm McMahon Associates Inc. – agreed to the parameters for the Crossroads study, which specifically looked at Route 30 and at least nine intersections along it.
Before issuing the ruling, board member Ken Bigham and Gillespie voiced disappointment with the traffic study for failing to address local roads near Route 30.
"We all basically felt we were not totally satisfied with the traffic study, but we feel with what the township and their engineer has given us, we have to accept it," Bigham said.
"There's not a thing we could do about it," Gillespie said. "They were given criteria by someone other than us and we can't overrule that."
He likened the location so close to busy route 30 to putting 10 pounds of manure in a five-pound sack.
Keith Miller, a Connecticut man and No Casino volunteer who testified against the traffic study during the hearings, said he wasn't surprised the board criticized it.
While he's not a traffic engineer, Miller believes the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board also is likely to find the study deficient.
And township resident Sharon Hamm said she believes the township should have required the 2-mile radius study.
"It is the responsibility of the township to require an applicant with a project of this magnitude fulfill all the requirements stated in the zoning ordinance," Hamm said.
She and the other residents connected to No Casino Gettysburg will likely appeal the board's decision, she said.
Rolling the dice
The process to get the zoning approval was anything but standard. Since casinos weren't permitted when Straban Township wrote its zoning ordinance, no area is specifically zoned for gambling facilities.
So casino investors rolled the dice and picked a property in one zone – the commercial highway district – where they said they thought it should fit, possibly as a special exception for commercial recreation. That's exactly what the board granted.
But the hearings couldn't commence until the board had addressed a challenge by Crossroads that two members of the board had displayed bias against the project by allegedly signing No Casino Gettysburg petitions. When the two members refused to recuse themselves, the matter went to an Adams County judge, who decided chairwoman Marcella Kammerer must recuse herself from the hearing but permitted Gillespie to remain. Bigham was not accused of bias and also stayed to hear the case.
During six hearings, the board had to consider the arguments of casino opponents, who argued a casino would be better considered adult entertainment, a conference center or uses permitted under other zoning designations.
Hamm she said she believed the hearing board was honest and did the best it could.
LeVan also praised the board for its hard work.
"This is a difficult and emotional issue," LeVan said. "(Crossroads) is a complex development, the size of which this township has never seen. They did a very difficult but thorough job."
LeVan accepted all 10 conditions, and said Crossroads will not appeal the decision.
Traffic count required
The conditions include a requirement for 20-foot-tall solid barriers along the boundary to the township's adjacent recreation park, including a berm and landscaping.
The proximity to the park had raised concerns during the hearing because of the nature of the adults-only enterprise.
"It's going to be high enough and childproof enough to keep the kids out," Gillespie said.
The board also asked for a new driveway for a nearby residence onto a private drive instead of Route 30 and required that Crossroads put up signs on Smith Road, Hunterstown Road and Cavalry Field Road, labeling them for local traffic only to reduce the amount of truck traffic and casino-patrons and workers bypassing Route 30.
The conditions also required Crossroads to do a traffic count if the casino is built. When Crossroads reaches its full 5,000 slots, Crossroads will count traffic and evaluate conditions to determine if its study predicted the amount of traffic correctly.
If the roads, with the improvements Crossroads already expects to do, don't handle traffic as well as predicted, then Crossroads will pay for road improvements at its own expense.
After the decision was read, the handful of residents who attended the meeting lingered around the township building, talking about the decision.
Pro Casino Adams County member Jeff Klein said he was very pleased with the decision.
"It was the right decision to make," Klein said. "They've done everything they've been asked to do, they made good arguments and they've followed the law."
But No Casino Gettysburg members were still hopeful Crossroads will not be awarded a license.
"It's like the South winning so many battles and losing the war," said No Casino member George Muschamp. "It's being revealed what we're going through here is the degradation of the community, the infrastructure and our way of life."
Contact Meg Bernhardt at mbernhardt@eveningsun.com .
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