From the new Jehovah Witness sprawling world headquarters to Tuxedo Farms and Genting Americas Tuxedo Ridge casino, the Town of Tuxedo is percolating with development activity. If all the projects continue and come to full project completion, they would certainly change the Western Ramapo-Orange County connected community.
The Genting Tuxedo Ridge Resort proposal has garnered perhaps the most raucous public response. Many locals are squinting mightily at the prospects of two resort luxury hotels with matching casino nestled next to Sterling Forest State Park. But the Genting application process has already paid dividends to the town as the multinational gaming company has poured $3 million into the town coffers, including a $340,000 non-refundable gift to the Tuxedo Free School District.
Call the new found revenue buy-in fees or part of the necessary groundwork for such a large-scale project.
@Sloatsburgny $3M for town to do their own due diligence. $340k closed Tuxedo’s school budget gap. Non-binding, non-refundable contribution.
— Michael Levoff (@MLevoff) June 6, 2014
The Town of Tuxedo is poised to receive an additional $47.5 million dollars via the recently signed Host Agreement that will kick in if Genting is awarded a casino license from the Gaming Commission for the Tuxedo Ridge site in Orange County. Per the company/town agreement voted upon by the Town Board, Genting would execute payment to Tuxedo over a period of two years – all contingent upon that golden ticket NY gaming license.
Through its own letter of agreement with Genting, the Village of Tuxedo Park would be paid $10 million dollars to be used by the village as it sees fit and tentatively slated for a number of village infrastructure upgrade projects. Again, any payments to the village are contingent upon Genting receiving a state gaming license for the Tuxedo Ridge site.
NY regions for gaming development / Courtesy of The Journal News.
But an Article 78 Petition was served Tuesday morning to Tuxedo that seeks to annul the Gaming Overlay zone recently created by the Town Board. The special Gaming Overlay zone in north Tuxedo gave Genting the zoning elbow room and town project approval the company needed to complete the Gaming Commission application — which was presumeably submitted to the NY Gaming Commission at the end of June. An Article 78 proceeding challenges the actions of an administrative agency in court — in this case, the action challenges the process by which the Tuxedo Town Board created the town’s Gaming Overlay zone.
A message from The Sterling Forest Partnership said that the Article 78 Petition is an effort to “trip Genting’s galloping momentum” and to send a strong message to the NY Gaming Commission that “a significant portion of the affected community does not want this project to happen in Sterling Forest State Park”
According to the Times Herald-Record, “Attorney Michael Sussman filed Article 78 proceedings Monday in state Supreme Court in Goshen on behalf of 18 Tuxedo residents.” Genting Americas has a second casino application on-going in Montgomery, Orange County, called Resorts World Hudson Valley.
The Sterling Forest location is certainly a sweet spot relative to gaming, especially for an imaginative adventure park and resort experience versus a more city-oriented casino operation. The economics of each gaming region will eventually sway Albany’s decision. A lower Orange County casino could conceivably be a lucrative regional juggernaut versus the much more economically depleted Catskill locations under consideration.
Tuxedo resident Roger Friedman, who helped organize the Article 78 Petition action, said that the effort to block the Tuxedo Ridge casino was made on objections to the “entire development on environmental grounds, and on grounds of social degradation, and as a practical matter that the way of life of this community will be dramatically changed.”
“By this lawsuit,” Friedman said in Hemma Easley’s Times-Herald article, “we want to demonstrate the strength and depth of community discord with the Town Board.”
