Surrey legislature voted 5-4 early Saturday morning to reject a gaming permit for a due $100-million review casino in South Surrey, observant while a city desperately needs a hotel and discussion centre, a farming village was not a right place for a gaming facility.
The 2 a.m. vote, welcomed by cheers from south Surrey residents, followed a marathon open hearing, that ran over dual nights and concerned tighten to 200 speakers both for and opposite a project, due by Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Ltd. and a B.C. Lottery Corp.
The proposal, slated for 12th Avenue and 168th Street, enclosed a 60,000-square-foot gambling floor, 200-room four-star hotel and 27,000-sq.-ft. gathering and party centre with restaurants and lounges.
“These are things we positively need for a city,” pronounced Coun. Bruce Hayne, though “the village has oral aloud and clearly. we unequivocally trust this trickery is in a wrong location.”
Gateway had sought to pierce a proxy gaming looseness it has for a Newton Bingo Country casino on King George Boulevard to a new facility. The plan compulsory city legislature capitulation before a gaming looseness can be issued.
Couns. Linda Hepner, Barbara Steele, Barinder Rasode and Tom Gill upheld a project, while Mayor Dianne Watts and a other 4 councillors – Hayne, Judy Villeneuve, Marvin Hunt and Mary Martin – opposite it.
The preference followed a seven-hour discussion Friday night, during that many supporters reiterated claims a plan would emanate internal jobs and move high-end party to a city, while those opposite pronounced it would boost trade and crime and impact their skill values. Some 74 south Surrey residents — many of them students —opposed a casino for their neighbourhood, while 112 speakers, many Gateway workers who were bussed into a hearing, spoke in foster of a project.
Watts pronounced it wasn’t an easy decision, observant that while she never wanted a casino she was peaceful to concede one in sequence to get a hotel and discussion centre. But that was before she listened from south Surrey residents.
“South Surrey cares really deeply about their village and what happens in Surrey,” pronounced Watts, who has lived in south Surrey for 22 years. “I get a economics, a jobs … though essentially is it a right thing to do? To take it from one village and force it on another that doesn’t wish it? we can’t support relocating it from Newton and putting it in south Surrey.”
Watts concurred during a discussion that a plan “sort of fits” a city’s gaming policy, observant a shortfall is there there is no open travel to a site.
Jim Lightbody, comparison executive of a BC Lottery Corp., had urged a city to approve a license, observant he believes a plan would offer a needs of south Surrey while almost building Newton and Cloverdale.
He remarkable gambling is a fifth many renouned choice for party among adults, behind restaurants, bars, film theatres and live entertainment. The project, Lightbody said, has 4 of those choices. “What we have is all about choice,” he said.
Gateway now has a choice to keep using container machines in Newton, that had been temporarily authorized for a subsequent 18 months.
Surrey stood to benefit $3 million in annual income if a casino approved, a figure that Steele pronounced “was zero to sneeze at.” She argued a hotel, gathering centre and party formidable was desperately needed, while Rasode pronounced Surrey might not have to wait during slightest 10 years before a identical event comes again.
Gill agreed: “We need to build this city, we need these amenities.”
But south Surrey residents argued a plan should be in an industrial area and not on a parcel of land that is home to all sorts of wildlife and a fish-bearing stream.
Semiahmoo high propagandize tyro Jordana Peters, armed with a 144-signature petition, urged legislature to reject a proposal, observant “you don’t paint Gateway, we paint your constituents.
“Do not divide us by giving us a growth we don’t need or want,” she said.
Villeneuve lifted concerns that Gateway would build a casino initial and not lift by with a rest of a project, identical to what was finished during Fraser Downs formerly when that casino was built. She suggested Gateway partner with Fraser Downs Racetrack and casino to build a hotel and discussion cente in Cloverdale, observant it also a bustling hive of activity and has a infrastructure in place.
Lightbody had insisted Gateway would have hold loyal to a skeleton or face penalties, though Villeneuve still voted opposite a project, job it a “high impact development” and pronounced it’s not a picture she wants people to see as they come opposite a U.S. limit and into Surrey.
Earlier in a night, South Surrey proprietor Phil Embley urged legislature to listen to residents, observant “from a start this diversion has been rigged.”
“A citizens’ organisation never wins a numbers diversion opposite an orderly well-financed corporation,” he said.
He and other anti-casino speakers questioned because a BC Lottery Corp. was concerned in advocating for a proposal, even vocalization on a approbation side. “The regulator should not be a cheerleader,” Embley said. “This is a many argumentative focus legislature has ever dealt with … But it’s a adults opposite a outsiders.”