Aurora casino backers offer to pony up $34M for roads and cops if Amendment 68 passes

AURORA | Proponents of Amendment 68, who are betting that voters will let them turn Aurora’s horse-race track into a full-fledged casino, say they’ve improved their hand by finding a way to raise money to improve congested roads near the racing facility at the city’s most southeast reaches.

“There’s a lot of political rhetoric being tossed around,” John Taylor, chairman of Twin River Casino, said. “So, we wanted to get a scientific study with the city and county, wanted to see what impact a limited gaming facility in Arapahoe Park would have and mitigate that.”

It means potential casino owners are willing pony up tens of millions of dollars for roads and public safety if the measure passes. Critics, however, including county commissioners are moving so far toward becoming proponents as the election looms.

The Yes on 68 Campaign announced Tuesday that the Arapahoe Park Racetrack will commit an additional $34 million toward bolstering infrastructure and public safety services that may be stretched by the passage of the amendment, which calls for limited gaming to be added to the racetrack in eastern Aurora in the form of a casino that would house at least  2,500 slot machines and 65 table games. Anticipated to top 178,000 square feet and cost more than $170 million, the casino would operate under a 34 percent tax on all gaming, which in turn is expected to generate $114 million annually for public and charter schools across the state.

The decision to add funding for infrastructure improvements came following the completion of a traffic study contracted by Arapahoe Park and its parent company, Rhode Island-based Twin River Casino. After reviewing the study’s findings, officials from Arapahoe Park and Twin River agreed to pay a one-time $17 million traffic mitigation fee, and contribute $17.5 million annually toward community resources such as fire and law enforcement services. The five-week-long study originally called for a traffic mitigation fee of only $11 million, though city and county officials expressed concerns that more funding would be needed to ease stress on the hectic intersection at Quincy Avenue and Gun Club Road, causing the racetrack to agree to pay an additional $6 million. The $17.5 million for community entities is split between a $10 million fee directly from Arapahoe Park and $7.5 million from property taxes.

Completed in conjunction with city planners from the City of Aurora and Arapahoe County, the study focused on nine intersections along Quincy Avenue, Gun Club Road, Hampden Avenue and Belleview Avenue. Of the suggested intersection projects, eight out of the nine are scheduled to be completed by 2016. The final improvement, along Hampden and Gun Club, is expected to be completed by 2021. The findings also anticipated that Quincy, Gun Club and Watkins Road will be six lane roadways by 2035, and that by the same time Hampden, Belleview and Picadilly Road will each have four lanes, based on information in the longstanding Arapahoe County 2035 Transportation Plan.

“The thing is, we already have plans on the books to improve those roads,” Nancy Jackson, Arapahoe County commissioner, said. “Should they win the election, then of course having some help with that would be wonderful, it’s part of what I hope they do, but that doesn’t change my opposition to the amendment.”

Jackson said she that she has not had any direct communication with Arapahoe Park or Twin River during the pre-development process. She said that she opposes the bill personally because as a former educator, she believes that Coloradans should fund education because it’s the right thing to do, not force it on the backs of other industries like gambling and marijuana. The Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners as a whole has not taken an official position on the issue.

Another central argument against Amendment 68 is that the addition of a new Front Range casino could jeopardize the roughly 8,000 jobs held by mountain casino employees as well as money for local road maintenance, museums and community colleges those casinos finance through gaming taxes. Opponents also argue that the measure’s language related to gaming regulations is too vague, and allows for too gross of a profit for an out-of-state company.

“We don’t want out-of-state people telling us what they’re going to do and what they’re not going to do just line their pockets,” John Marvel, resident of the Tollgate community adjacent to the racetrack, said. “Which is exactly what they’re doing.”

In late August, Arapahoe Park canvased many homes like Marvel’s, knocking on nearly 20,000 doors in neighborhoods surrounding the racetrack.

“One of the things we consistently heard was that people were concerned about traffic,” Twin River Chairman Taylor said. “And when we heard that we went out and found a traffic engineer and did it as expeditiously as possible. Whatever (our) study said, we were going to pay for.”

Taylor promised that Twin River’s $10 million pledge toward civic services will not be lowered under any circumstances, though it could be increased if the city or county deems it necessary.

“Based on similar projects in other parts of the country, $10 million seemed to be in line with those,” Taylor said. “But if the county comes back and says it needs to be higher, we absolutely will negotiate with them on that, and it will not go under $10 million.”

Although the recently added community contributions are more concrete than the non-specific “initial impact fee” mentioned in the final version of the amendment, they are barely half the amount of the improvements called for in documents presented by Aurora City Council. Councilman Bob Broom attempted to pass a city council resolution condemning the measure on Sept. 22, claiming that infrastructure improvements around the racetrack could top $62 million, a number estimated by the city’s planning department.

The traffic study comes on the heels of an economic impact assessment released last month which was also commissioned and financed by “Yes on 68.” The assessment estimated that the measure’s passage would result in a $398 million annual economic impact on Arapahoe County, generate 1,400 permanent jobs at the facility and bring in about 800 temporary construction positions.