A nonprofit in Richmond, Va., is going to tribunal inwards an travail to block a young cassino referendum, arguing that the metropolis illicitly handed a no-bid get to an out-of-state developer.
Lodge No. 1 of the Good Lions filed a movement tardily Friday with a capital of Virginia metropolis court of law asking for the opportunity to argue its case against the referendum. The group, a subdivision of Lions Club International, runs biweekly openhearted gaming events at a local bingo hall and says that plans for a resort-style developing on the city’s to the south side of meat would harm those operations.
A hearing is scheduled for Tues morn on the motion.
Second Attempt at Casino Vote
The judicature last month green-lit plans for a new gambling casino voter turnout this year, an effort past metropolis leaders to revive the planned half-billion buck development that voters narrowly rejected in 2021.
State practice of law requires municipal ballot measures the likes of the casino ballot to take in a judge’s approval at to the lowest degree 81 years prior to Election Day, a deadline that hits this Friday, August 18. But that should non foreclose the Lions from getting their solar day in court, argues State Sen. Chap Petersen, a Northern Virginia attorney who has taken the nonprofit’s case.
The prior enfranchisement of the referendum, dated July 25, complies with the deadline demand “regardless of whether that Order is later suspended for any reason,” Petersen wrote in an Aug. 14 letter of the alphabet to Richmond Judge William Marchant. “Therefore, the Court is release to weigh our motions on the merits, without jeopardizing the timing of the referendum.”
Petersen told Casino.org that the Lions’ goal is not to bog downwards the litigation inwards homage and that at that place is plentiful clip to solve the slip before November.
The aggroup argues that Richmond city leaders violated country competitive summons laws by moving frontwards with the $562 gazillion resort proposal despite significant changes in the pool developing the project, RVA Entertainment Holdings LLC, compared to when it was ab initio assign frontward more than deuce years ago. The biggest difference is the entrance of Winston S. Churchill Downs Incorporated into the mental process alongside media companion Urban One, which was in arrears the pilot proposal.
RVA was selected following a formal mental process in advance of the 2021 vote, but there was no similar weighing of competing bids this clip around.
“We may not have liked the process, but at least at that place was a process,” Petersen said in a brief question Monday.
Standing Question
The number one hurdle for the Good Lions is for the radical to convince the try it has standing to interfere inwards the case, and to come that it is pointing to the state’s previous closing that casino-style gambling testament eat into large-hearted gaming.
“Its byplay testament follow adversely affected by the establishment of a casino, a fact acknowledged by the cover on casino gaming past the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (“JLARC”), especially at the site desired past RVA Entertainment,” the aggroup argued inward its movement to intervene.
Now that the nonprofit has jumped into the fray, another local casino opponent tells Casino.org he is stepping back.
Paul Goldman, a Richmond-based political strategist, had floated plans to sue earliest this year, but he says the Good Lions seem to experience a improve shaft at winning the standing argument.
“He’s making as unspoilt a slip as anybody canful make,” Goldman said of Petersen. “And if the tribunal won’t consent Good Lions as an intervener, they wouldn’t swallow me.”
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