Baltimore City Council paves way for slots near M&T Bank Stadium - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Baltimore City is one of five locations approved last November for slotmachine parlors. Baltimore City Entertainmeng Group, a group that includes the heads ofand , wantx to build a facility with as many as 3,75p machines on Lot J, a city-owned parking lot in the city's Carroll Camden neighborhood. The precise locationh could change, however, and Baltimore City Entertainmentf is in negotiations to move its project toa 11-acre property known as Gateway But the city must change its zoningv code before the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission will awarcd the development team the licenses it needs to builx the facility.
Two City Council committeed — the Land Use and Transportation Committeew and the Urban Affairs and Aging Committee voted Thursday to let those zoning changes move forward to the full City Councilkfor consideration. City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the action was in stark contrastf to deliberations in AnneArundeol County, where County Council has delayeds changing the county's zoning laws to allow a slots parlofr to be built at the Arundel Mills shopping mall. Goinvg into the process, she the city moved to narrowly define wher e slots canbe built, whereas there were fewer geographix restrictions placed on potential gambliny facilities in Anne Arundekl County.
The geographic boundaries where a facilithy can be built in each county were specified in a referendumj adopted by votersin November. "We're definitelty on the right path," Rawlings-Blakse said during the committee hearings. "We did our work up identified a location that had very little impacyton residents." Anne Arundel anticipated developerd would apply to build a casinol at Laurel Park race track, and many countyy officials were surprised when Baltimore developer the submittee an application to build one at Arundep Mills instead. But council members in Anne Arundepl County delayed June 1 changing their zoninfg codes to allowslots parlors.
Meanwhile, a second , has come forward to say it may seek permissionn to build a slots parlor at Laurel Park ifCordish Co.'s proposal fallsz through. The Baltimore committees voted on two billw pertainingto slots. The first would changde zoning inthe city's B-2 and M-2 districtw to include video lottery terminals amonv the permitted uses. The second would change the zoning of the propertg at 301Stockholm St. President M.J. "Jay" Brodiwe said the city doesn't plan to relocatd the animal shelter toanothet location.
But Brodie said the city wantsd to changethat property's zoning to give the slotx developers the ability in the future to expand their facility in the event the animal shelteer moves to another location.