A member of the state gaming panel that approved the $1.6 billion gambling resort Wynn plans to build in Everett said yesterday the permitting process — not the lawsuit Boston has filed in a last-ditch effort to allow Charlestown residents to vote on the plan — could delay the project.
"I don't think necessarily the suit will delay it; I think it is the various permit-granting authorities that really hold the timing keys now," Commissioner James F. McHugh told the Herald, pointing to permits under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act and the Boston Transportation Department as just two of the "slew" of approvals Wynn still needs. "What their reaction to the lawsuit is — and what the city's participation in the permitting process is — really is going to determine how fast it's going to go forward."
Former Bay State Gov. William Weld, who represents the casino giant, yesterday said the resort will likely open on schedule, despite the lawsuit.
"I don't see any blocker to the casino. Everything that had to be done has now been done. We got the land on Monday. I think it's full-speed ahead, and the issue in the lawsuit has been adjudicated several times already, and we'll see," Weld said on Boston Herald Radio yesterday. "Nothing is more than 75 percent sure in litigation — that I'm sure of ... We'll see how it turns out in court, but I don't see any obstacle to it opening on time."
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh this week announced the lawsuit, which seeks to block the Gaming Commission's approval of the casino so Charlestown residents can vote on the deal.
But yesterday, McHugh said: "The statute's clear as to who gets the vote, and the host community gets the vote, and the surrounding community doesn't, and the commission has concluded Boston is a surrounding community. I just don't foresee any other action the commission can take."
Walsh has long argued that Boston is a host community because gamblers en route to Wynn's casino would use Boston's airport and roads, particularly in Charlestown.
But his administration failed to convince the commission or reach a deal with Wynn that Walsh considered fair compensation for the casino's impact on Boston.
Weld said Walsh "is doing what he feels he needs to do for his constituents in Charlestown, and that's fine. That's completely understandable."
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