Tuesday, June 24, 2025
The New York State Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, reversed a lower court ruling on Oct. 23. The decision revived Hofstra University’s legal challenge against the Nassau County Planning Commission over its former lease agreement with Las Vegas Sands over the Nassau Coliseum site.
The court’s three-page ruling sends the case back to Nassau County Supreme Court for further proceedings, citing the need for additional information and the inclusion of Las Vegas Sands as a party in the lawsuit.
“We are grateful that the Appellate Division reversed what we believed was an arbitrary, capricious and unjust decision of the lower court,” County Executive Bruce Blakeman said in a statement following the decision.
Hofstra’s lawsuit claims that the county violated the Open Meetings Law and the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) during the initial approval process for the Nassau Coliseum lease in March 2023. The university has argued through the lawsuit that the planning commission did not follow proper protocols in its public hearings, prompting the court to invalidate several votes and resolutions related to the lease agreement.
In two separate rulings in November 2023 and February 2024, State Supreme Court Judge Sarika Kapoor ruled in favor of Hofstra, so the original lease agreement was terminated and a new agreement was reached in July.
The Say No to the Casino Civic Association expressed its disapproval of the appellate court ruling in a recent statement, which it claims “has merely identified a technicality in the existing ruling, which has nothing to do with the evidence of clear misconduct in the County’s effort to advantage Las Vegas Sands and conceal the impacts of constructing a 4-million square foot casino near 50,000 students under the noses of his own constituents, the majority of whom oppose the massive casino.”
