Virginia Racing Commission to weigh Roseshire’s application at Sept. 8 meeting
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At its Sept. 8 meeting, the Virginia Racing Commission is expected to decide whether to issue an operational license to the Roseshire Gaming Parlor in Henrico’s Near West End, which would clear the way for the facility to open this fall.
Construction work on the Roseshire site, at 4016 Glenside Drive in the Staples Mill Shopping Center, is nearing completion, and the location has hired about 100 employees, with plans to open soon. Roseshire is slated to house 175 historical horse racing machines (which allow people to place wagers in slot-machine style machines that use video snippets of previous horse races) and simulcast wagering options, along with its Crimson Kitchen restaurant.
But the five-member commission could stymie those plans if at least three members vote to deny the facility a license, as a number of elected Henrico County officials hope they will. State Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg and Brookland District Supervisor Dan Schmitt (both of whom oppose the facility’s intended location) sent a joint email this week to citizens urging them to appear at the meeting and address the commission.
VanValkenburg, Schmitt and other county officials and legal representatives, as well as former General Assembly members from Henrico Walter Stosch and Siobhan Dunnavant, also intend to address the commission in opposition of Roseshire’s license application.
All members of the county’s board of supervisors and General Assembly delegation have opposed the Roseshire plans since Churchill Downs officials filed them last spring – not necessarily, they’ve said, because they don’t want such a facility in the county but rather because of the specific location the company selected and the manner in which it did so.
“Rosie’s actions demonstrate a clear disregard for the voters and residents of Henrico and undermine our efforts to ensure our local community has a voice in this decision, which will impact them,” the two men wrote in their email.
County officials objected to Churchill Downs' approach
Churchill Downs officials filed their plans last year just days before the county’s board of supervisors was scheduled to change the county’s code to require a provisional use permit for any business seeking to introduce HHR machines, which would have required a public hearing process.
By filing before that happened, though, the company legally was able to open such a facility on any site zoned for B-2 (business district) usage in the county without any public input, thanks to a 1992 referendum in which Henrico voters authorized off-track betting.
General Assembly legislation in 2018 that permitted HHR machines in Virginia also permitted them in localities that had approved such referendums previous, but county officials contend that since voters in every Virginia locality in which similar HHR facilities exist specifically authorized them, Henrico voters should have the same opportunity.
County officials believe the current planned location is inappropriate for a gambling site because of its proximity to a number f residential communities. Churchill Downs officials have countered that nothing they’ve done was forbidden by existing code or law and that the county’s attempt to single Roseshire out is unjust.
Legislation introduced earlier this year in the General Assembly by VanValkenburg that would have required a public referendum for Roseshire to open ultimately was rolled into a bipartisan budget plan that passed the assembly. The final language would have prevented Roseshire from opening unless Churchill Downs officials request a referendum by submitting a petition signed by at least 5% of the county’s registered voters (about 12,500 people) and then that referendum passed with a simple majority of the vote.
But Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued a line-item veto of those provisions before signing the budget, saying that he had learned that county officials would not have sought a referendum for the facility had it been located at a site they endorsed. The company, he said, invested $5 million in the Staples Mill site “and then someone came and tried to change the rules,” he said. “I just didn't think that was appropriate.”
The veto came just nine days after Churchill Downs-owned Colonial Downs racetrack in New Kent County held its first-ever Kentucky Derby-qualifying race (the Virginia Derby), an event at which Youngkin was photographed with Churchill Downs officials who were present.
At least one of the five members of the VRC – Stuart Siegel – already has publicly expressed support for the county's perspective. At a Feb. 14 meeting of the commission, Siegel said that he would favor Roseshire going 'through the process" of public scrutiny.
“I think that it's only the right thing to do given circumstances," he said at the meeting.
Though the VRC’s issuance of a license would clear a major hurdle for Churchill Downs, the company also still awaits a decision from the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority on its request for a license to serve alcohol at Roseshire. It’s unclear when the ABC will consider that request, but some people who submitted statements of opposition to it have been contacted recently by ABC officials about testifying in the case.
