City Council to hold hearing on Foxwoods casino
City Council will hold a rare Saturday public hearing in two weeks on zoning legislation introduced yesterday to allow a casino at The Gallery in Center City.
City Council will hold a rare Saturday public hearing in two weeks on zoning legislation introduced yesterday to allow a casino at The Gallery in Center City.
Such hearings typically feature a developer putting on display colorful sketches or impressive models of what they hope to build.
But not this one. Investors for Foxwoods, the casino project that may move from a state-approved location in South Philly, likely won't have plans prepared in time for the Nov. 1 hearing.
That is sure to increase concerns in nearby Chinatown about the potential casino. Foxwoods suggested The Gallery as an alternate site five weeks ago.
"We haven't gone through a process yet," said Cecilia Moy Yep, founder of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. who pleaded with Councilman Frank DiCicco to wait before introducing the zoning legislation for Foxwoods. "We have yet to receive one piece of paper. We haven't had a decent conversation with Foxwoods. We don't know what they're planning."
Mayor Nutter, who opposed the South Philly site and favors the Gallery location, said his staff has repeatedly asked the developers for details and expects them "in the next couple of weeks."
"It's hard to have a hearing on a project if you can't see what it would look like, at least from a sketch, to give people some sense of what we're talking about here," Nutter said yesterday.
A Foxwoods official last week said plans may not be ready until mid-December. The developers yesterday said they expect to "work collaboratively" with the city but didn't respond to a question on when plans would be ready.
DiCicco, who also opposed the South Philly site, cautioned that the Foxwoods move is not a "done deal" and could be at least five or six months away from approval by the City Planning Commission. He called the zoning legislation a good-faith effort by the city on the idea.
"We can't on one hand say move off the waterfront and then when they go somewhere else put up all the roadblocks and obstacles to prevent that from happening," DiCicco said. *
