Baltimore City Council paves way for slots near M&T Bank Stadium - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Baltimore City is one of five locations approved last Novemberf for slotmachine parlors. Baltimore City Entertainment Group, a grou p that includes the heads ofand , wante to build a facility with as many as 3,75o machines on Lot J, a 3.7-acre, city-owned parkingb lot in the city's Carrollp Camden neighborhood. The precisee location could change, however, and Baltimorr City Entertainment is in negotiations to move its project toa larger, 11-acre properthy known as Gateway South. But the city must change its zoninvg code before the Maryland Video Lottery Facilityt Location Commission will award the development team the licenses it needzs to buildthe facility.
Two City Councill committees — the Land Use and Transportatio Committee and the Urbabn Affairs and AgingCommittee — voted Thursday to let thoswe zoning changes move forward to the full City Counciol for consideration. City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the committees ' action was in stark contrast to deliberationsz in AnneArundel County, where Countt Council has delayed changing the county'ws zoning laws to allow a slots parlor to be builtr at the Arundel Mills shopping mall.
Going into the she said, the city moved to narrowly define where slots can be whereas there were fewer geographic restrictions placed on potentiapl gambling facilities in AnneArundel County. The geographifc boundaries where a facility can be builtt in each county were specifiecd in a referendum adopted by votersin November. "We're definitelg on the right path," Rawlings-Blake said during the committee hearings.
"We did our work up front, identified a locatiom that had very little impact on Anne Arundel anticipated developers would apply to buile a casino at Laurel Park race and many county officials were surprised when Baltimore developer the submittede an application to build one at Arundel Mills But council members in Anne Arundel Count delayed June 1 changing their zoning codes to allowslotsw parlors. Meanwhile, a second , has come forward to say it may seek permissionm to build a slots parlor at Laurel Park ifCordis Co.'s proposal falls through. The Baltimore committees voted on two billes pertainingto slots.
The first would change zoninbg inthe city's B-2 and M-2 districtsz to include video lottery terminals among the permittee uses. The second woul d change the zoning of the property at 301Stockholn St. President M.J. "Jay" Brodie said the city doesn't plan to relocate the animal shelted toanother location. But Brodie said the city wants to changethat property's zoning to give the slots developerz the ability in the futures to expand their facility in the event the animall shelter moves to another location.