An artist’s rendering of Lago Resort & Casino, in Tyre, Seneca County.(Photo: Provided photo)
A court decision on Friday delivered an apparent win for opponents of a casino planned in Seneca County.
An appellate panel found that the Town Board in Tyre failed to meet a requirement to provide a clear written explanation of its finding last year that Wilmorite's planned Lago Resort and Casino would cause no significant environmental harm.
As a result, the appellate panel annulled the town's finding while also "vacating the site plan approval and all related resolutions."
The decision by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department of state Supreme Court, reversed a lower court's ruling last fall.
Unsurprisingly, a casino representative and project opponents disagreed on the significance of Friday's decision.
Daniel A. Spitzer, an attorney for 10 members of the group Casino Free Tyre, said his clients believe the project is dead — at least for now.
"What is presented here is not a situation where they can't go forward," he said, "but they have to start over."
Steven Greenberg, spokesman for Lago Resort and Casino, downplayed the decision's impact.
"This was a decision on technical grounds that we anticipate will be rectified in the near future," he said. "We're continuing to focus on the development of the project in anticipation of a license being issued by the Gaming Commission."
But Spitzer, a partner at Buffalo law firm Hodgson Russ LLP, said there should now be a serious review of environmental concerns ignored the first time around. Potential concerns include how the project could affect Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, he said.
"This project simply presents so many potential impacts — traffic, noise, the aesthetics of putting in these tall buildings, the wildlife impacts," Spitzer said.
Wilmorite is based in Chili. Thomas Wilmot, a Rochester-area mall magnate and board chairman at Wilmorite, has sought to build a casino in New York for more than a decade. A state board last year gave his $435 million plan for Tyre an initial go-ahead.
Friday's ruling indeed focused on technical matters. It rejected as inadequate a document prepared after the fact to explain the Town Board's reasoning.
The requirement that the board failed to meet is supposed "to focus and facilitate judicial review and, of no lesser importance, to provide affected landowners and residents with a clear, written explanation of the lead agency's reasoning at the time," the decision said.
One of four judges that ruled on the case disagreed and wrote that the town's finding should be upheld.
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On Wednesday the state Gaming Facilities Location Board announced recommendations for casinos at three sites, including Tyre, Seneca County, where Wilmorite Inc. is planning to build the $425 million Lago Resort project. Provided video.
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