Greater Patchogue coverage is funded in part by New Village at Patchogue, open-concept rental residences with sleek contemporary design. Click here for a tour.
After several years of studies, failed sales and lawsuits, Suffolk County’s Off-Track Betting Corporation trudges on with its proposal for a Medford casino.
The plans are to add a two-story, 192,332 square-foot casino at 440 Expressway Drive South. This is the second time the OTB has tried to develop a betting parlor on this property — it was scrubbed in 2016 amid outcry from the community.
With the success of Jake’s 58 — the video lottery terminal the Suffolk OTB opened in 2017 in the Village of Islandia — the OTB decided to give the Medford site another go.
On March 3, a Wednesday night, OTB held a formal meeting over Zoom for public comments on the Medford proposal Draft Environmental Impact Survey, which the body accepted from Nelson Pope Voorhis Jan. 25.
In a telephone interview prior to the meeting, Suffolk OTB spokesman Jon Schneider called the session “a critical step towards whatever the future may hold for Medford,” elaborating that OTB is obligated to either develop the property it purchased, or sell it if its plans there fail.
Just like Jake’s 58, this establishment will be limited to video slot machines. For the uninitiated, these are electronic versions of casino games.
The Medford proposal is one of two ways the public benefit corporation looks to expand the number of VLTs under its control.
“OTB right now, we have 1000 terminals at [Jake’s 58],” said Schneider. “But one of our top priorities is — this year — is getting an additional 1000 machines.”
The body is considering adding another 1,000 terminals to Jake 58’s gaming floor, according to Schneider, but plans for such a move have not been submitted to any jurisdictional body.
State law caps OTB’s terminal allowance at 1,000 machines. Any more VLTs at any location within Suffolk County would require approval from the New York State legislature.
Should OTB’s Medford project reach approval, they will triple their current footprint, as plans for the Medford casino calls for 2,000 terminals.
Schneider said the lion’s share of the structure will be dedicated to gaming areas, with additional allotments for a restaurant, a buffet, a bar and a coffee bar. He said OTB also has plans for a 9,000 square-foot performance area, which will foster an atmosphere of a traditional casino and set Medford apart from Islandia’s Jake’s 58.
The 30-acre property off the Long Island Expressway, where was once a movie multiplex, will also house a self-serving sewage treatment plant, 963 parking spaces and three levels of parking for another 1,384 spaces.
Zoning issues
The sparsely attended 30-minute meeting focused on a brief overview of the Draft Environmental Impact Survey, from Charles Voorhis of Nelson Pope Voorhis.
Voorhis presented architectural renderings of the proposed two-story structure, which featured the “Jake’s” logo seen at OTB’s Islandia location, and the surrounding property which extends from a commercial recreation (CR) district into an A-1 residential district in the west. The wooded residential area, Voorhis said, would remain unaltered by the project.
Zoning concerns have been the most contested aspect of the Medford proposal since OTB purchased the property in 2014.
Brett Houdek, president of the Medford Taxpayers and Civic Association, a vocal opponent to the casino, stood out as the only member of the public to speak comments into the record during Wednesday evening’s hearing.
Houdek’s civic was one of the plaintiffs in a suit against Suffolk OTB heard in the Riverhead Suffolk County Supreme Court in 2015. Just as he did seven years ago, he argues that OTB cannot have virtual lottery terminals (VLTs) in the CR district under Town of Brookhaven law. The case was ultimately dismissed as the court declared it was premature.
“They’ve never addressed the underlying issue of zoning,” Houdek said of OTB since the case’s dismissal.
During his three minutes to comment Wednesday, Houdek pointed to OTB’s description of the Medford proposal as an “indoor amusement establishment” as “misleading.”
He argues that an OTB operation should be classified as an off-track betting parlor, which can only be built within a J5 zone with a special permit issued by the Town of Brookhaven Planning Board. An indoor amusement establishment, on the other hand, is permitted within the CR zone without additional approval.
Traffic and taxes
In a phone interview prior to the hearing, Houdek expressed concern that the casino would cause additional traffic on Route 112 and other roads surrounding the project. He said OTB chose a poor location for the project given its surrounding areas.
“You’re building it on the property line of residential homes,” Houdek said. “It’s the wrong location. And then on the other side of the property is a children’s amusement park. That’s not where you put a casino.”
The Medford civic staunchly opposes OTB’s proposal as it will not generate taxes for Medford. As long as OTB owns the property and runs the facility, according to the Brookhaven Town Tax Assessor’s Office, the project is exempt from property taxes.
The proposed restaurant, however, is projected to rake in $4 million in sales subject to sales tax each year, according to Nelson Pope Voorhis’ Fiscal and Economic Impact Summary submitted to OTB Feb. 5, 2020. The report calculates this would raise $160,000 in tax revenue for New York State and $170,000 for Suffolk County.
Schneider also explained that OTB could strike a tax relief deal for Medford just as was brokered with Jake’s 58 and the Village of Islandia. “I’m sure we would have a talk with the local jurisdiction about what would a fair payment be.”
He also emphasized that the project “provides an entertainment option that really was lacking. So many people and so many dollars were leaving our community.” The EIS calculated the casino’s indirect and induced economic impacts to the community as $36.4 million and $23.4 million each operational year.
The period for written public comments on the Draft Environment Impact Survey remains open until March 17.
As the casino moves along the track from proposal to approval, Houdek said he is prepared to take his opposition back into the courtroom. “If need be, we will refile,” he said. “And basically I think we’ll have a stronger lawsuit this time around.”
