Healey said in a letter Friday to the state’s environmental affairs secretary that Wynn should not get the permit until a plan is in place to address traffic around Boston’s notoriously congested Sullivan Square area located not far from the waterfront site.
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Ms. Pollack wrote in her letter that the Greater Boston area has been subjected to quite comprehensive research over the past ten years or so and serious traffic issues had been posed well before luxury hotel and casino was proposed.
Steve Wynn is nobody’s victim, so when the gambling magnate complains he’s being singled out unfairly by Attorney General Maura Healey – well, let’s just say few will be crying salty tears on the flashy billionaire’s behalf.
The attorney general’s letter met the Friday submission deadline for comments regarding Wynn’s application, and follows a memo calling for Wynn’s traffic report to be independently reviewed, that Healey sent to transportation officials in July. A decision is expected to be issued by Matthew Beaton, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary, by August. 28.
However, Boston officials had formerly introduced a $100-million plan for the long-term fix of traffic in the area and contended that Wynn Resorts’ own plan would conflict with theirs.
“No long-term planning was involved, and the proposed casino will not be phased”, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone wrote. “That hub is now poised to become the main route to a $1.7 billion casino, the largest private development in Massachusetts”.
He said after two-and-a-half years and millions of dollars and thousands of pages of traffic analysis, the company is ready to move forward with a plan to make $10.9 million in traffic improvements to Boston’s congested Sullivan Square. The electronic ones represent identical form letters speaking in favor of the Wynn project but signed by different people.
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All three cities are also suing the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in separate lawsuits over the regulator’s decision to award Wynn Resorts one of three casino licenses for the launch of fully-fledged casinos in the state. MGM is developing a resort in Springfield and Penn National Gaming is operating Plainridge Park, a slots parlor and harness racing track in Plainville.
