Several municipalities and a local civic organization have announced plans to sue the Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. against a proposed video gaming parlor at the former Fortunoff site in Westbury.
At a news conference Thursday, officials from the towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead as well as the Village of Westbury said they would file for a temporary injunction against the OTB Friday in state Supreme Court in Mineola, alleging the proposed site violates Hempstead town building code as it is located within 500 feet of a residence.
“A preliminary review appears to indicate that there are residences within that radius” wrote Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray Thursday to Joseph Cairo, chairman of the Nassau OTB. “In light of this fact, I would ask that Nassau OTB withdraw its consideration of the Fortunoff’s site for a planned facility.”
Though the proposed site near the Source Mall in Westbury is located within the Town of Hempstead, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said Thursday that 955 North Hempstead residences are located within half a mile of the site, and 2,830 within one mile.
Bosworth, who along with North Hempstead Town Clerk Wayne Wink and Councilwoman Viviana Russell has in recent weeks joined in protests against the gaming site, said it is their responsibility as elected officials “to be the voice of opposition to this very bad idea.”
“Throughout the past month we have been reminded again and again by OTB that it’s their way or the highway,” she said. “They have asserted there is nothing we can do about this. It’s a done deal, they say. Go away and step aside. Well, we’re not stepping aside.”
Efforts to reach OTB officials for comment were unavailing.
Arthur Walsh, general counsel to the Nassau OTB, said during a mid January community meeting in Westbury that no contract for the Fortunoff site has been finalized and that 200 full-time jobs are expected to be added with the project.
The parlor, which is expected to hold up to 1,000 video slot machines, would occupy 15 percent – or 30,000 square-feet – of the roughly 200,000 square-foot building, OTB has said. If the site were to be acquired, the gaming parlor is expected to open some time this year.
Officials from Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola also voiced opposition to the plan Thursday, saying in a statement that the gaming parlor would congest traffic on Old Country Road.
“We believe that it will significantly increase traffic congestion in the area and in doing so will pose a serious health threat to the local residents and surrounding communities. Old Country Road is clearly one of the most heavily traveled in the region,” said John F. Collins, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer. A potential casino near Roosevelt Field threatens to bring traffic to a standstill and make it impossible for ambulances and those needing emergency medical care to get to Winthrop quickly.”
Norma Gonsalves, the Nassau County Legislature’s presiding officer, also joined the opposition Thursday, saying in a statement that “the impending lawsuit makes it increasingly clear that an unbridgeable chasm exists between the parties on either side of the issue.”
“Accordingly, I believe we have arrived at the time when Off-Track Betting must bow to the will of the people and consider abandoning its pursuit of the Fortunoff site,” Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said. “That is an outcome that I and the Republican majority on the county Legislature would warmly welcome.”
