Agenda Text
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Supporting this City's legal appeals related to the licensing of the Wynn Casino.
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Official Text
WHEREAS Wynn Resorts proposes to build a casino less than 0.1 miles from the border of the City of Somerville; and
WHEREAS The proposed casino would have serious negative environmental, public health, economic, housing, and traffic-related impacts on the residents of the City of Somerville; and
WHEREAS The scale of the project would put thousands of extra cars per day on our local roadways, resulting in a significant increase of exhaust into the air we breathe-much of it into neighborhoods where some of our most vulnerable populations live in areas already declared Environmental Justice zones due to the pollution load; and
WHEREAS The Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health Study, a collaborative study of pollution near highway and major roadways in our region conducted by Tufts University, found that breathing in air polluted with vehicle exhaust increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, asthma, and premature death; and
WHEREAS Project-related traffic would have detrimental operational and safety impacts at nine specific intersections in Somerville, including: Assembly Square Drive at Mystic; Assembly Square Drive at Broadway/Lombardi; Fellsway at Middlesex Ave; Fellsway at Grand Union Blvd; Broadway at Franklin St; Washington St at Innerbelt Road; Broadway at McGrath Highway; Broadway at Blakely; and Mystic Ave at Fellsway; and
WHEREAS An analysis conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that there would be significant impacts on Somerville’s neighborhood streets as a result of the Wynn Casino, due to spillover and diversion effects from congestion at Sullivan Square and other major surrounding intersections; and
WHEREAS An analysis conducted by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council concluded that the casino project would have a damaging impact on affordable housing in the City of Somerville; and
WHEREAS The casino project would have a negative economic impact on the City of Somerville by drawing patrons away from local businesses; and
WHEREAS The City of Somerville has five pending legal actions related to the licensing of the Wynn Casino, including: an appeal of the casino license; an appeal of the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act findings; an appeal of the Public Benefit Determination; an appeal of the Everett Municipal Harbor Plan; and an appeal of the Chapter 91 Waterways License; and
WHEREAS this Board has continually and publicly supported the City of Somerville’s legal actions to assert its rights under the law; NOW THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED that this Board of Aldermen continues to support the appeals filed by the City of Somerville to protect the residents of the City.