Discussions over where casinos belong in Keene are continuing at City Hall, as staff work to develop a zoning ordinance that would determine their placement.
After the city council voted in February to send the ordinance back to the drawing board so more details could be ironed out, it’s been the subject of a pair of joint meetings between the council’s Planning, Licenses and Development Committee and the Keene Planning Board.
It’s now scheduled for a third joint session on June 10. The ordinance will also require a public hearing and a recommendation from the PLD committee before the full city council makes a decision.
The ordinance’s latest iteration narrows where charitable gaming facilities would be permitted, including by prohibiting them in the one place where Keene’s only casino already exists. Other details being fine tuned include requirements for the size of a gaming facility and distance from homes.
At the May 13 joint session, panel members suggested including a 10,000-square-foot minimum size requirement for a facility’s gaming floor, and other proposed language would bar casinos from being built next to a residential district.
City officials are currently proposing that charitable gaming facilities be limited to three sections of Keene’s commerce district. While they’re still nailing down the precise boundaries, these areas include portions of Winchester Street such as Riverside Plaza (where Walmart and HomeGoods are) and the Applebee’s lot, parts of West Street such as the Kohl’s plaza and West Street Shopping Center, and Monadnock Marketplace, which houses Target, among other retailers.
In its initial form, the proposal would have limited charitable gaming facilities to the city’s downtown growth and commerce districts while prohibiting them from the downtown core.
According to a Keene zoning map, the downtown growth district includes areas near the city’s spine, but is essentially set back from the primary stretch of retailers and eateries on Main Street. It includes sections of West Street, Gilbo Avenue and Emerald Street to the west, and Community Way and a portion of Water Street to the east. A section of Main Street between Davis Street to the north and Winchester Street to the south is also part of the downtown growth district.
This zoning district is where Keene’s sole gaming facility, Wonder Casino at 172 Emerald St., operates.
If the ordinance passes, Community Development Director Jesse Rounds said that Wonder Casino, which at that point would be a non-conforming use in the downtown growth district, would still be able to conduct business and could expand at its current site.
“I think the idea would be if we had interest for additional charitable gaming facilities, they would only go in these proposed areas,” he said.
Debate over casinos in Keene was prompted by a letter in September from then-mayor George Hansel, requesting that city councilors consider disallowing charitable gaming facilities in the downtown core district.
City staff introduced the zoning change in October, and discussions have put business owner Dorrie Masten’s application for a casino at Central Square on hold while the ordinance awaits council decision.
While some in favor of Masten’s downtown casino argued to councilors that a charitable gaming facility could attract more business for the local economy, others have said one could bring too much vehicle traffic to Keene’s center and cause parking spots to be occupied for extended periods of time.
At the joint committee’s May 13 meeting, PLD Chairwoman Kate Bosley told the group that it’s made progress on the proposed ordinance, but the discussions need to continue on how charitable gaming facilities fit into Keene.
“Council definitely was not comfortable with the way it was written and wanted to see a lot more thought put into it,” Bosley said. “… We needed to have these conversations and really as a group come up with what we think is the best strategy for this type of use in our community.”
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