No cube!
A state decide invalidated the Nassau County authorities’s approval of a 99-year lease settlement permitting Sands to assemble a $four billion on line casino complicated on the Nassau Coliseum web site.
The decide dominated officers short-circuited the open conferences and environmental legal guidelines earlier than voting.
The lease is now void and Nassau County planning officers are left to begin new hearings with the county legislature and vote once more in the event that they wish to approve it.
The choice issued Thursday by Supreme Court docket Choose Sarika Kapoor is an enormous victory for Hofstra College, the plaintiff within the case whose campus is situated subsequent to the coliseum hub and opposes the on line casino plan.
Hofstra filed the lawsuit in April, claiming county planning officers and lawmakers failed to offer ample discover for public conferences and environmental evaluation previous votes within the spring.
“We admire the courtroom’s considerate ruling and the courtroom’s granting of cheap attorneys’ charges and prices to Hofstra incurred in reference to a number of of the claims,” mentioned Hofstra U. president Susan Poser.
“The courtroom acknowledged the general public’s proper to take part in decision-making in regards to the present redevelopment plan for the Nassau Hub. We sit up for contributing to the planning course of and advocating for the usage of the Hub in methods that may greatest contribute to our thriving neighborhood, whereas defending towards environmental and different harms,” the Hofstra honcho mentioned.
The bombshell comes simply days after Mets proprietor Steve Cohen unveiled his bid to erect a $eight billion casino-entertainment complicated subsequent to Citi Area as a part of a rebranded Metropolitan Park.
Lots of the heavyweight gaming operators are jockeying to win one of many three coveted state licenses to run a on line casino within the New York Metropolis metropolitan space, together with Lengthy Island and the northern suburbs.
“The respondents violated each the Open Conferences Regulation and SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act] approving the lease switch,” Kapoor, a 2004 Hofstra Regulation Faculty graduate, mentioned in her 32-page opinion.
Nassau County had no speedy official remark.
However Sands, in an announcement, mentioned it will not be deterred by the ruling.
“Las Vegas Sands is continuing proudly and enthusiastically with our proposal for an built-in resort and leisure middle on the Nassau Hub. We’re grateful for the fantastic response now we have acquired from the Lengthy Island neighborhood and we will likely be persevering with our very complete outreach as we current this transformational undertaking,” the corporate mentioned.