Live! Hotel and Casino receives feedback from Planning Commission

In November Live! Hotel and Casino was awarded the city’s second gaming license for a location at 10th and Packer.

The project made a presentation to the Planning Commission this week. The plans for this casino currently do not meet zoning requirements because of a lack of open space, among other reasons.

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The developers are also hoping to get some legislative changes to the SP-ENT zoning classification. The current proposal exceeds the FAR limit of the underlying zoning, doesn’t meet the open-space requirements, and would need changes to digital sign controls in order to be approved in its current design.

Members of the Planning Commission said they wished the presentation had included more context. The architects, BLT based in Philadelphia and Klai Juba Wald based in Las Vegas, did a good job of explaining the building, but a bad job of showing how it would relate to the stadiums and other surrounding uses, said Commissioner Nancy Rogo-Trainer. If the casino is really going to take advantage of all the activity in the area generated by the sports stadiums, it’s going to have to show a clear pedestrian plan connecting the various sites.

There are bigger issues, too. Cordish has been sued for racial discrimination in three states, and local black leaders decried the gaming board’s selection of Cordish because the group had no minority ownership. National Action Network, a civil rights group founded by Rev. Al Sharpton, was on hand Tuesday to ask the Planning Commission to hold off making any decisions until the results of its investigation are released, likely sometime in the next two weeks.