Rhode Island casino developer Twin River Management Group last week unveiled a proposal for an 80,000 square-foot casino patterned after the Tiverton public library and a three-story hotel.
The preliminary designs and site plans were presented to the Tiverton town council. The final details, including economic impacts, will be presented to the council on November 9.
Twin River says it has held numerous meetings with about 1,200 residents total over the previous several months.
Residents have asked about traffic impacts, impacts to neighborhoods and how much the town will collect from such an enterprise. Residents’ concerns led to parking lots being move out of view of the residential area and moving a service road away from sensitive wetlands.
Residents were polled about architectural designs and chose the town library architecture to imitate.
Twin River estimates that it will pay the city about $4 million annually. The city’ voters would need to approve of the casino and so would voters statewide. Before that happens the city council would need to petition the legislature to place the measures on the ballot and Twin River would have to get permission to shift it license from Newport to Tiverton.
Tiverton is the preferred site because it is just a few hundred yards from the Massachusetts, Rhode Island state line. That location was chosen to intercept players who might want to leave the state and gamble in the Bay State.
