Casino squabbles and government involvement is becoming a trend on the eastern seaboard as yet another state has to call in the big guns to help them. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is meeting to help the owners of the SugarHouse Casino, the city it is being built in, and the state legislature come lay claim to or give up the land the casino is supposed to be built on. The section of land that they happen to be fighting over just happens to extend halfway across the Delaware River where it meets the New Jersey shore line.
Anyone who wants to lease land along the river that includes partially building their establishment over the water has had to seek permission from the state legislature before starting construction work. However, the owners of SugarHouse were issued a lease by then Mayor John Street. Street invoked a little used ruling from a 1907 law that supposedly authorized him to act on behalf of the state as their agent. Unfortunately some state legislators sued both the city of Fishtown and SugarHouse in the Supreme court over this matter, stating that the Mayor had not right to give away the ‘riparian rights’ and are now seeking concessions from the future casino which may include kicking them off the proposed building site.
To make matters even worse for SugarHouse, Mayor Nutter who came into office January of 2008 has revoked the license granted to SugarHouse, and the lawyers in the city state that neither Mayor Street nor the city ever had the legal right to issue the license. SugarHouse is now without city support and they fighting for the vested interest they have in the property and area, stating that the neither entity has the right to revoke their license. Some construction work has already been started and SugarHouse has invested money in surveys and other preliminary construction issues.
The Supreme Court in the state has decided to hear the appeals of SugarHouse and another proposed casino Foxwoods, who doesn’t have the need to build over water. Since the licenses had been awarded in 2006, the court has already kicked out a referendum from the city asking to have the casinos moved further away from residential neighborhoods, and stating the Gaming Control Board decides where the casinos go. They are also going to be looking into why it took the city so long to get the zoning process finished and ordered that the city grant Sugarhouse and Foxwood all the building permits and other licenses they need so that they can start building.
Tags: mayor john street, sugarhouse casino
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