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Mahoning leaders delay action for $250M racino
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County commissioners began the process Thursday of vacating a 3,500-foot section of Lanterman Road that exists on paper on the Austintown racino site, but was never built.
They must now view the site and have a public hearing before they can act to vacate. The viewing and hearing have not yet been scheduled.
The $250 million Hollywood Slots at Mahoning Valley Race Course will be built on the east side of state Route 46 at Silica Road, where Penn National Gaming Inc. bought the land for $4.6 million in April. The site is just south of the Interstate 80 interchange.
The county planning commission was slated to vote on joining two vacant land parcels for the 187-acre project Tuesday, but learned earlier that day that the county commissioners had to vacate the road segment before it could act, said Mike O’Shaughnessy, planning commission director.
Once the commissioners vacate the road segment, the matter will return to the planning commission for a November vote.
Austintown has no objection to vacating the portion of Lanterman Road, said Darren Crivelli, township zoning inspector.
The county will retain and pave a 500-foot section of the Lanterman Road right of way at the racino entrance and align it with Silica Road, said county Engineer Richard Marsico.
The intersection already has traffic lights for Route 46 and Silica Road traffic, and new light faces will be installed there to be seen by people exiting the racino, he added. A second entrance to the racino for horse trailers and emergency vehicles is planned from 76 Drive, Crivelli said.
Penn National is relocating the racino from Beulah Park, a track it owns near Columbus, to the Austintown site.
Slated to open in 2014, the Austintown racino will contain slot machines, a restaurant, entertainment facility, retail businesses, a one-mile oval thoroughbred racetrack, grandstand and stables. The casino will be open around the clock.
The facility will create 1,000 construction jobs and 1,000 other direct and indirect jobs after it opens, officials have said.
Austintown Trustee David C. Ditzler said the project includes $18 million in excavation, which Penn National hopes to begin this fall.