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Schmitt, VanValkenburg to host Dec. 5 meeting about proposed Rosie's Gaming facility in Henrico

,   and  Citizen Staff Reports
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A rendering of the proposed Rosie's Gaming Emporium location in the Staples Mill Shopping Center in Henrico County. (Courtesy Rosie's Gaming Emporium/Churchill Downs, Inc.)

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Henrico County residents will have a chance to discuss the Rosie's Gaming Emporium proposed in the Staples Mill Shopping Center during a community meeting Thursday, Dec. 5. The meeting, hosted by Virginia State Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-16th District) and Brookland District Supervisor Dan Schmitt, will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Henrico County Recreation and Parks headquarters, located at 6800 Staples Mill Road.

VanValkenburg, Schmitt and other elected officials from Henrico have been critical of the manner in which Rosie's parent company, Churchill Downs, Inc., submitted its plans for the gambling facility, which could feature as many as 175 historical horse racing machines and parimutuel betting. All eight members of the county's General Assembly delegation penned a letter to company officials in July urging them to withdraw the plans and resubmit them after new development standards adopted by the county were finalized.

The company submitted plans in June to open the gambling facility at the 25,000-square-foot former site of Surplus Furniture and Mattress in the shopping center, located at the intersection of Glenside Drive and Staples Mill Road. Because the site is already zoned for B-2 (business district) usage, which allows as many as 175 historical horse racing machines and parimutuel betting without public input, the county cannot legally prohibit the company from opening such a location there.​

But Henrico officials in May had begun a process through which supervisors ultimately adopted a new ordinance June 25 requiring any such facility to obtain a provisional use permit prior to opening anywhere in the county. Consideration of a PUP by the board requires a public hearing and would subject the plans for such a facility to public and county scrutiny.​

At the Henrico Board of Supervisors’ June 25 meeting, Schmitt criticized what he said was an attempt by Churchill Downs Inc. to “circumvent” the board’s ordinance-adoption process by filing its plans for the new facility June 18, though nothing legally prevented the company from doing so.

Henrico lawmakers have argued that the project could bring undesirable changes to the community.