Long Island Casino Public Meeting Slated for Dec. 9

Nassau County residents will get their chance to sound off on Las Vegas Sands’ proposal to build a casino hotel at the site of Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY at a public meeting of the county legislature on Monday, December 9.

Scheduling of the meeting arrived after Sands submitted an extensive draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) to the legislature in November an 800-page document that residents can view on the . The comment period on the environmental review runs through January 6.

Both the December 9 meeting and the environmental review are essential to the gaming company’s and Nassau County’s hopes of winning one of the three yet-to-be-awarded downstate casino licenses because last year, New York State Supreme Court Justice Sarika Kapoor transfer agreement between the county and Sands violated New York’s open meeting laws and the state’s environmental evaluation process.

It’s expected that New York regulators will award those three coveted licenses late next year, and bids facing environmental challenges and legal overhangs could be swiftly rejected.

As is the case with many of the nearly dozen downstate casino bids, Sands’ Nassau County proposal has , namely in the form of nearby Hoftstra University and some local community groups.

On the other hand, the project doesn’t lack for supporters, including local politicians and labor leaders who see the Sands gaming venue stoking job creation and tax revenue. Sands estimates that if the Long Island casino comes to life, it would create $563 million in annual taxes. Of that figure, $440 million would go to local schools and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), according to Long Island Business News.

Sands is proposing a world-class Integrated Resort that incorporates multiple components of leisure, business and entertainment to provide a wide range of experiences for the local community and guests,” said LVS in the DEIS. “The Integrated Resort concept leverages the complementary travel patterns of business travelers who attend meetings and conferences during workdays and leisure tourists and visitors who visit on weekends.”

It’s estimated that the project would create 7,000 construction jobs and 13K permanent roles, many of which would be union jobs.

Opposition groups have cited energy and water consumption concerns as among the reasons they , with some noting Nassau County’s water infrastructure is currently antiquated and strained. In the DEIS, Sands estimated the integrated resort’s water demands would be nearly 110K gallons per day plus another 14,613 gallons per day for irrigation.

For water demand tied to the construction of the casino hotel, Sands is in the process of designing and testing new wells. That would be most applicable to Phase 2 because Phase 1 is expected to create only minimal new demand for water.

Regarding energy use, Sands is promising a focus on sustainability, carbon mitigation, and the use of renewable energy.

“Sands’ proposed energy strategy would help to conserve electricity, minimize potential carbon emissions, and avoid significant water consumption associated with cooling towers, which have typically been used to generate chilled water for air conditioning on similar developments,” the operator said in the DEIS. “Furthering Sands’ commitment to energy conservation and clean energy generation, the roofs of the proposed parking garages, meeting and conference space, and entertainment venue would include the integration of photovoltaic (PV) panels.”