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The Northwest Observer Covering your community since 1996!

IS THE RUSH?’

“If development is coming, it must be done with transparency,” county resident Clark Erskine said during last week’s meeting. “This is our chance to get it right. What is the rush if we really want to get it done the right way?”

Rockingham County is one of three rural counties where a bill being drafted by Republican legislators in Raleigh would authorize the first gambling operations not located on tribal property in North Carolina. The U.S. 220 site up for rezoning from residential agriculture (AG) to highway commercial (HC) is located just a few miles north of Stokesdale and Summerfield.

Last week, the councils in the two towns passed casino-related resolutions. Both councils asked legislators drafting the gambling bill to authorize local referendums in the three counties where casinos are planned. In addition, the Stokesdale council passed a second resolution opposing the Rockingham County casino.

“This is basically a burden that is trying to be forced onto poor, rural areas in the state of North Carolina to make up for a budget shortfall from the state,” former U.S. representative Mark Walker said during the Stokesdale council’s meeting. Walker is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

In Oak Ridge, the council didn’t consider a casino-related resolution during its meeting earlier this month. Expressing her own views in an interview earlier this week, Mayor Ann Schneider said “this kind of quick-dollar development is not positive community-centered development.”

“We don’t like how close it is,” she added, joining other opponents with concerns about the property abutting Camp Carefree. For 37 years, the nonprofit organization has run free summer camps for children with chronic illness, as well as their siblings.

“People think the world of Camp Carefree,” the mayor said.

Rockingham’s commissioners have said little publicly since news outlets began reporting last month on the draft legislation and its selection of Rockingham, Nash and Anson counties as casino sites. During last week’s commission meeting, Chairman Mark Richardson responded to remarks by opponents of the rezoning petition.

Without mentioning gambling as the possible use for the U.S. 220 property, Richardson said, “your commissioners are in charge of change. Sometimes we don’t know what is coming.

“There is a change coming up,” Richardson went on, explaining that it’s being instigated by increases in the county’s population, as well as costs, presumably for the county’s operations.

“We’re going to do our best to deal with that,” the chairman said. “You know, we haven’t raised the rate of taxation in this county for 14 years.”

Statewide, the three casinos would pay a 22.5% excise tax on gross gaming revenue, according to WRAL News in Raleigh, citing the draft legislation.

Opponents kicked off their anti-casino campaign with a meeting at Ellisboro Baptist Church in Madison Aug. 1. Organizers distributed “NO CASINO” yard signs and urged people to flood elected officials in Rockingham County and Raleigh with emails and phone calls.

Those officials include state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, a Republican from Rockingham County helping draft the casino legislation. His son, Kevin Berger, serves on Rockingham County’s Board of Commissioners.

The draft bill instructs North Carolina’s secretary of administration to start taking proposals by Sept. 1 from companies with 10 years of experience in the commercial gaming industry, according to WRAL News. The company selected to operate the three casinos would be required to spend at least $1.5 billion in private money – or at least $500 million at each location – and propose to add at least 5,250 jobs.

Last month in Rockingham County, the Planning Board voted 5-2 to recommend the commissioners deny the rezoning request for the 193 acres on U.S. 220. Opponents have cited the board’s recommendation as one of numerous reasons why rezoning for a casino should be voted down.

At the county level, the rezoning process doesn’t require applicants to disclose how they might use the property. The request by NC Development Holdings, linked by state filings to Baltimore-based gaming developer The Cordish Cos., seeks a straight rezoning of the property.

Unlike a conditional rezoning, a straight rezoning imposes no restrictions on permitted uses of the property. During last week’s meeting, Clark Erskine asked the commissioners to deny the straight rezoning request.

Commissioners will consider four factors in determining whether to approve the straight rezoning request, according to an email we received earlier this week from County Attorney Clyde Albright:

• The size of the tract for which the rezoning is sought

• Whether the request conforms with and furthers the goals of the county’s comprehensive plan

• How development might change the character of the area

• Whether the rezoning would be “compatible” with adjacent neighborhoods, especially the stability and charter of residential neighborhoods

In contrast to evidentiary hearings, public hearings don’t require commissioners “to review factual evidence,” Albright noted. Decisions such as “zoning map amendments are left to the discretion of the commissioners.”

He added that “at the conclusion of the hearing, a written statement briefly setting out the board’s rationale for its decision on the zoning map amendment is required. The board is free to make a decision on a rezoning that a majority of the Commissioners believes will best serve the citizens.”

Denying the rezoning request would represent the best interests of the county as a whole, according to opponents.

“Do you think anyone in their right mind would be interested in moving to a county that can’t be transparent and can’t take the interests of its own citizens into account when making decisions?” asked Brandon Leebrick, who lives near Camp Carefree.

“Like they say, it seems there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that doesn’t show a lot of transparency,” added Doug Isley. “The folks here want input. It is our community. This is our way of life.”

Camp Carefree board member Rhonda Rodenbough said a casino would be “well beyond” development suitable for the area.

“We are begging you to please slow this down,” she said.

Money that local residents would lose on gambling wouldn’t be “coming to downtown Madison anymore,” Rodenbough said. They’re not going to Summerfield. They’re not going to Oak Ridge.”

“I’m afraid if you go through with this, it’s going to make my job a lot more difficult and other pastors’ jobs a lot more difficult because of the lifestyle that comes with” gambling, said Rev. Torrey Easler of Mayodan First Baptist Church. want to attend/listen?

The Rockingham County Board of Commissioners is meeting at 6:30 p.m. next Monday, Aug. 21, to consider rezoning property for a possible casino. The meeting will be held in the county’s governmental center at 371 N.C. 65 in Reidsville. To watch the meeting live, click on the media page on the county’s website at www.rockinghamcountync.gov.