The Planning Board in Tiverton, Rhode Island gave their final approval to Twin River’s casino plan in the town bordered on two sides by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The board’s actions needed to be completed before a building permit can be issued. Property owners next to the casino site filed an appeal earlier in the week but their attempt to delay the process failed as it was filed one day too late, according to the nearby Newport Daily News.
Two days earlier, an appeal of the preliminary plan was filed by abutters of the property that could have stalled final plan approval and the issuance of a building permit. But the appeal was deemed untimely because it was filed a day too late. According to the report, Tiverton Planning Board attorney Kelley Morris said that although there was “a lot of going back and forth on this,” in effect because it was too late, the “purported” appeal was not filed at all from a practical standpoint. Even though no appeal is pending the property owners next to the casino site could challenge the appeal’s dismissal for being untimely. Zoning Board attorney Peter Skwirz pointed to case law stating that the challengers had 20 days to file after the preliminary decision to approve was recorded and posted, but that they had filed: “21 days, 5 hours, and 37 minutes after the signed decision was recorded in the Clerk’s Office.”
Twin River Management Group also own and operate the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, RI and purchased the Newport Grand Casino in order to relocate the license to a new location after Newport residents failed to approve table games at that casino. The company also owns Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi, MS as well as Arapahoe Park Racing and Entertainment in Aurora, CO. The Twin River Tiverton Casino Hotel is being built less than a mile from the Massachusetts border near Fall River on 45 acres of property that includes more than 20 acres of wetlands. The RI Department of Environmental Management has signed off on the project.
The property will include a hotel, food, beverage, and entertainment outlets, and a 38,000 square foot casino with 32 gaming tables and 1,000 electronic gaming machines. It is expected to open in the summer of 2018.
