The first meeting of the Coney Community Advisory Committee, which will vote on whether to recommend the state gaming commission award one of three casino licences, will be held on Wednesday, July 30.
The meeting will be held at the Regina S. Peruggi Academic Center (V) Building at Kingsborough Community College from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. The meeting, which involve six committee members that were appointed by various state and local officials, will vote on a committee chair and schedule upcoming meetings to further discuss The Coney, a casino project developers want to build in Coney Island.
In these meetings, the CAC will review the application, gauge local support and ultimately issue a finding determining whether there is adequate support for the proposed project.
Public seating and capacity at Kingsborough is very limited, the announcement by the New York Gaming Facility Location Board read. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. To ease entry to the meeting space, those who wish to attend the meeting in person should email [email protected] by 5:00pm on Tuesday, July 29.
State Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny said he was concerned that the first meeting of the CAC is taking place outside of the district where the casino would be located.
"The hearings need to be accessible to residents of the Coney Island community," Brook-Kransy said on X.
He said residents would have to take multiple modes of public transportation to get to the community college, located in Manhattan Beach.
"The current location for the CAC meeting creates an obvious obstacle to public involvement in the Coney Island community," he said. "Furthermore, the unwillingness of many Coney Island venues to host the meeting serves to demonstrate that the community does not support the casino proposal."
Jeff Sanoff, the chair of Community Board 13, which covers Coney Island, asked for the meeting to be moved to a closer venue.
"Community Board 13 has given several suggestions on locations in Coney Island to use for this meeting," a letter from CB13 to the New York State Gaming Commission reads. "Please change the location of this initial meeting to ensure transparency is available from the outset of this part of the process."
The Wednesday meeting will not have a public comment portion, but the meeting can be seen live here. Comments can be sent to: [email protected].
