Hempstead's first public hearing on casino next week

The first public hearing regarding the proposed Uniondale casino since the New York State Supreme Court ruled last November the signed lease transfer for the Nassau Coliseum site between the Las Vegas Sands group and Nassau County was not valid and would have to start again is taking place Jan. 18.

But this hearing isn't Nassau County, but instead the Town of Hempstead, which has begun reviewing the propoal as part of the State Environmental Quality Review Act to look over the environmental review drafted by Sands officials.

That first hearing takes place Thursday at the Marriott, 101 James Doolittle Blvd., in Uniondale. Two sessions will be held throughout the day — one starting at 10:30 a.m., and the other taking place at 6 p.m.

The hearing comes on the heels of the suit Hofstra University filed against the county last year, claiming the state's Open Meetings Law was violated when the Nassau County Planning Commission voted in favor of the Sands lease last April. 

Although the county is appealing that decision, overall plans for the $4 billion project will continue.

“We're just going to go through the process again, and we're going to win because we have more support now than we ever had." said Matthew Aracich, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, who could oversee the construction of the proposed entertainment center if passed.

At 393,726 square feet, this proposed casino would be the second largest casino in the country behind only the WinStar World Casino & Resort in Oklahoma. The 80-acre property would be redeveloped with outdoor community spaces, high-end hotels, and what County Executive Bruce Blakeman described as a "world-class live performance venue honoring the legacy of live music" at the Coliseum.

But the Say No to the Casino Civic Association say that these benefits do not outweigh the consequences of placing a casino in the heart of an already underfunded and underserved community.

“The proposed casino would be colossal, dwarfing casinos in Las Vegas, and will have far-reaching, monumental impacts on our community,” said the civic association in a release on Monday.

Some of these impacts, according to the civic association and Hofstra President Susan Poser, are increased crime rates, decreased home values, an influx of approximately 23,000 visitors a day — creating a traffic nightmare and increasing air pollution — and projects an annual $2 billion in annual losses from the local economy.

“The documents provided on the Town of Hempstead website confirm the significant adverse environmental and social impacts that this monstrous complex will bring to the heart of Nassau County: more traffic, more air, light and noise pollution, enormous use of our water supply and energy for a casino complex that will be more than 1.5x the size of the Roosevelt Field Mall, more gambling addictions, and a corrosive, destructive change to the character of our community,” the civic association continued.

"We look forward to contributing to the planning process and advocating for the use of the Hub in ways that will best contribute to our thriving community," Poser said about next week’s meeting, "while protecting against environmental and other harms."

CORRECTION:  A previous version of this story did not make clear the Town of Hempstead would lead the Jan. 18 hearing.