58.0°,
Partly Cloudy Conflicting stakes
While Elmont residents urge revitalization at Belmont, Floral Park citizens oppose altering the world-class racing facility
While Elmont residents, the Shinnecock Indian Nation and Detroit developer Michael Malik have been anxiously anticipating the construction of a casino at Belmont Park for several months, for residents to the track’s north, living in the Village of Floral Park, the feeling’s not mutual — it’s not even close.
Case in point: dozens of public messages written by Floral Park Mayor Thomas Tweedy, advocating against the Belmont casino development. Tweedy’s public messages — which can be found online, at www.fpvillage.org — began addressing the Belmont casino plan in May, shortly after Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano announced a Economic Development and Job Creation Plan for the county, and plans for an Indian casino at Belmont gained momentum.
On Oct. 4, at a meeting of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz — who co-chairs the council — offered a new idea to reconstruct the Nassau Coliseum at Belmont Park, in addition to a casino and other mixed-use development.
On Oct. 17, Tweedy shared his feelings about that plan in a public message:
“While there are a host of projects in need of such funding on Long Island, under the leadership of Hofstra’s president, the planning group has apparently focused its initial attention on the 77-acre site which is adjacent to Hofstra University’s 220-acre campus on Hempstead Turnpike,” Tweedy wrote. “In the (LIRDC)’s submission of its 32-page report, less than 400 words are dedicated to the development and future of Belmont Park. Whatever the merits of redeveloping the 77-acre Hub site to fit nicely into the vision that not-for-profit landowner Hofstra University has for its own future, Hofstra’s president must not be the one leading the planning group making such decisions.”
So, what is the Village of Floral Park’s stance on the Belmont casino plans?
The village wants Belmont to remain a world-class thoroughbred racing facility — and only a world-class thoroughbred racing facility. A casino, Tweedy added, would be better suited for the Hub site, where developments like Mitchell Field and hotels already exist. Regarding residents' concerns about traffic at the Hub, if a casino were constructed there, he said: "How do people get to the Coliseum now? They drive. If a casino were built there, people would drive there."
In 2007, the village established a Belmont Task Force to examine the proposal for a Video Lottery Terminal Racino at Belmont Park, and developed a set of principals for the facility. Although the VLT proposal is much different from the casino proposal, Tweedy said that the virtues contained within those principals still hold true.
Among those principals is the following: “These facilities are not an island, but are an integral part of the communities in which they are located — they should be subject to the same rules as their neighbors, including zoning, employment, housing codes, regulations and police oversight.”
In a July message, Tweedy wrote that there are “as many questions as there are opinions; some positive, some negative,” about the Belmont casino plans. “Such transparency has yet to happen regarding the casino,” he said. “We are experiencing a vacuum of information. These unaddressed vacuums are filling with anxiety and suspicion. The village board and I recognize and share those feelings.”
Since that message, Tweedy has maintained that the plan’s transparency is an issue.
On Nov. 2, at a public forum in Rockville Centre held by the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, Tweedy disparaged Rabinowitz’s sudden support for a casino at Belmont Park, noting that Rabinowitz said in June of 2010, in a Newsday article, that he was both opposed to a casino at the park and willing to fight any plans for such a development. He also criticized the Belmont casino plans for neglecting Floral Park residents, and has discussed the casino’s potential long-term negative effect on the community.
"What I'm looking for is a fair and transparent process," Tweedy said, adding that the village and those taking the lead on the casino plans — as well as other community stakeholders — really haven't had a chance to come together for discussion.
According to the Shinneock Indian Nation, however, they did meet with the village's Board of Trustees and Tweedy twice over the summer to discuss preliminary casino plans — one of which included a walk-through of Belmont Park and a description of the development.
