A new suggestion to end the deadlock over slots zoning for Anne Arundel County comes from Council Chairwoman Cathleen M. Vitale: to approve them at a location where nobody wanted them. Eight months after developer David S. Cordish became the only qualified bidder for Anne Arundel's slots license with his proposal to build a casino at Arundel Mills Mall, Ms. Vitale is one of three council members who have yet to publicly take a position on the question. Her latest proposal suggests she's still looking for ways to avoid it. She is floating the idea of zoning to allow slots only at an industrial park south of Route 32, which has the advantage of not being near residential neighborhoods but the disadvantage of not having been a sufficiently attractive slots venue for anyone to have entered a bid to put them there in the first place.
Hurry Up And Vote
Our View: Anne Arundel Council Members Have Had More Than Enough Time To Make Up Their Minds About Slots At Arundel Mills Mall, And Their Indecision Hurts Us All
The council has been tied in knots about how to reconcile the determined opposition by some neighbors of Arundel Mills Mall, who don't want the mega-casino/entertainment complex proposed there by Cordish Cos., with the fact that Arundel residents voted overwhelmingly for slots in last year's referendum. It's a fair question to ask at this point what, exactly, anyone on the County Council could be undecided about. There have been plenty of public hearings and opportunities for councilmen to request - and get - concessions from the developer to mitigate their concerns. It's hard to imagine what new information they could need to make an informed decision.
But that's just the point. Council members look like they're not trying to make up their minds but trying to avoid it. The Sun's Julie Bykowicz and Nicole Fuller reported Monday that the latest hope for untangling this dilemma is that Councilman (and slots opponent) Josh Cohen will win his race for Annapolis mayor and that council members who secretly support slots at Arundel Mills will vote to replace him with someone who has no compunction about supporting the plan publicly. Fabulous. What could go wrong? If someone gave out Profiles in Cowardice awards, surely these would be leading contenders.
The legislation enabling slots retained local control over zoning for such facilities so local governments could help minimize negative effects and decide whether slots are appropriate in their jurisdiction - not so they could hold up a matter of crucial statewide importance through dithering and indecision.
Baltimore, which has the potential to host the second-largest slots parlor in the state, moved quickly to grant zoning. Of course, it was easier in the city's case since Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration got directly involved during the negotiations for slots legislation and carved out a deal for a Baltimore casino that she could live with.
Anne Arundel officials may act shocked that the only qualified bid came for Arundel Mills, not the Laurel Park racetrack that people long assumed would be the venue for slots. But people have been floating the Arundel Mills casino idea since at least 2005, and lawmakers knew when they approved the slots legislation in 2007 that the designated zone in Anne Arundel included the mall.
If council members wanted to avoid having to make this decision, that's when they should have acted. Now, however, they need to take a vote. Whether they ultimately would accept or reject slots at Arundel Mills, the indecision is simply delaying the day when the tax dollars from an Arundel casino (wherever it's located) will start flowing into the state's badly sagging coffers, and that exacerbates the depth of spending cuts Gov. Martin O'Malley will need to make in the meantime to keep the budget balanced. Surely Mr. O'Malley is too fair-minded to heap a disproportionate share of the cuts into the districts of the dithering council members, so that leaves the rest of the state to suffer from their inability to do the job voters elected them to do. Readers respond
The slots facility in Anne Arundel County should be located at Laurel Park, plain and simple. Any other location seems absurd in comparison. And, if Cordish Cos. wins the auction for the two local racetracks, they would have absolutely no reason not to move their slots parlor to Laurel Park. The A.A. County Council should wait to see how the racetrack auction turns out and act accordingly. Sean Tully
