Wynn Casino wins this round in the Battle vs. Mayor Joseph Curtatone

Img: www.BostonHerald.com

The Mayor of Somerville Joseph A. Curtatone legal appeal against the Wynn casino in the neighboring Everett has been dealt a very heavy blow by a state hearing officer who recommended the key environmental license to be granted.

A Fifty page discussion by Jane Rothchild which indeed backed up the plan including some revisions could ultimately clear the way for the digging to begin.  Jane Rothchild was the state Department of Environmental Protection hearing officer placed on the case.

Joseph Curtatone’s appeal ultimately stalled the construction of the planned project which was to be located along the Mystic River, which in turn prompted Las Vegas Casino tycoon Steve Wynn to state that the gaming palace, if triumphant, would not open until the spring of 2019 at the earliest.

After an early hearing that took place in June, Rothchild stated that Somerville failed to prove that the state had erred in giving Wynn the casino.  She also continued by recommending various changes to the original license which included, requiring Wynn to include 6.4 acres of open space to the plan, shortening the term of the permit from the original 85 years to 50 years, as well as mandating Wynn to provide ferry services for the “duration” of the License period.

These recommendations ultimately still need to be approved by Martin Suuberg the DEP Commissioner.  Wynn officials stated that they appreciate the ruling, and that they are considering these changes in the original plans to be slight modifications.

Wynn unveiled their new models of the planned site in the month of March which included a twenty seven million dollar sculpture of the famous cartoon character Popeye, which was created by the artist Jeff Koons.

This team has estimated that it has ultimately used close to 300 million dollars into this project up to date, and has now pushed the budget from 1.7 billion dollars to 2 billion dollars.