Foxborough residents voted overwhelmingly to OPPOSE Gambling, but never you mind! The slick public relations and unending propaganda marches on to bring low wage jobs home to you!
The 'commuter rail' line currently doesn't exist and one must live in a cave not to have noticed the current fiscal disaster that exists within the MBTA, preventing consideration of taxpayer funded Kraft/Wynn development. [One may recall the PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE TO NOWHERE that Governor Slot Barns promoted to prepare for this Folly, surrounded by backroom deals and secret promises, that successfully moved the lines on a map to make this possible.] The estimated annual loss is ~ $4 MILLION, to be borne by municipalities along the route, even though they have no vote and will receive no 'mitigation.' Such a deal!
Thanks again, Governor Slot Barns!
Despite drawings, Wynn project size remains a mystery
By Frank Mortimer
So just how big is the main "destination resort" building shown in the brochure and DVD which casino developer Steve Wynn's mailed to thousands of Foxboro homes last week?
The promotional material doesn't say, and a public relations affiliate to Wynn Resorts says that's no accident.
Potentially competing with other developers interested in securing one of the state's three casino licenses, Wynn will not disclose at this early stage the specifics of building sizes, or all the specific mitigations he would offer the town for its support of the project, said Scott Farmelant, spokesman for Jobs For Foxboro.
Town planner Sharon Wason and building commissioner Bill Casbarra are in no position to discuss the dimensions or the aesthetics of the project shown in the artist's renderings distributed by Wynn.
"As to the drawings themselves, beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Wason said of the lodge-like rendering.
Unlike casual viewers, Wason and Casbarra focus on the technicalities of plans, and no plans have been submitted to the town.
Casbarra does expect the proposal to be big.
"I think a proposal of that magnitude would be a challenge for us, and we'd have to prepare properly for it as we did with the stadium and Patriot Place," he said. "I don't put a lot of stock in renderings. Renderings mean little to a building official. The plans are the meat."
Wason said: "The DVD didn't have any quantifiable details about the proposal, other than the parking garage will hold 5,000 cars."
It noted the garage would be used for game-day parking, so the size of the garage is dictated by number of spaces needed for a Patriots game, not the number required for the development, Wason said.
She said Foxboro's zoning requires one parking space per hotel room, one space for every 175 to 250 gross square feet of retail space (depending on whether it's 'large' or not), one space for every 100 square feet of a restaurant, bar, nightclub, one space for every three seats in a theater.
"So it's pretty hard to back out sizes from the number of parking spaces," Wason said.
Town zoning does not allow gambling facilities. Part of the Foxboro zoning bylaws (section 10.2.2.3) says "The Board of Appeals shall not have authority to authorize a use variance..." So the zoning bylaws would need to be changed to accommodate any gambling or gaming uses or spaces.
Current zoning does allow a number of associated uses, however.
The westerly side of Rte. 1 is zoned S1 and most of it is within the Economic Development Overlay district.
Retail, restaurants, business uses, theaters, nightclubs and museums are all allowed uses and subject to site plan approval from the planning board, she said.
Hotels, commuter rail stations and bus stations, and golf courses all require a special permit from the planning board.
Special permits require notification of abutters and adjacent towns.
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