The Batavia City Council has voted to approve changes to the city’s video gambling regulations.
The regulations approved Monday will limit the number of establishments with video gambling and impose certain criteria on where they can be located.
Restrictions to Batavia’s video gambling rules have been under consideration for months.
Potential changes to the city’s existing regulations were discussed by the City Council’s Committee of the Whole in July, at which point the council’s members decided to split the proposed regulations up into different items and come back to address them separately in the future.
Then, last week, three separate ordinances came to the Committee of the Whole and were recommended for approval, despite pushback from some council members.
Those measures then advanced to the full City Council, receiving final approval Monday.
The changes to the city’s existing regulations include a cap on the number of video gambling establishments allowed in the city, regulations establishing location criteria, and an ordinance making video gambling establishments permitted uses in all zoning types where it’s currently allowed, rather than as a conditional use.
There are currently 13 video gambling licenses in the community, with eight in the downtown district, as well as another application that’s currently pending, per the city. Among the establishments that offer video gambling are restaurants, bars, fraternal organizations and a few other venues.
The cap approved Monday will limit the city to issuing a maximum of 14 licenses citywide, and limit the number of licenses allowed in the downtown mixed-use district to nine. This accounts for the pending application.
The city has indicated that the Committee of the Whole could review raising or lowering the limit as license holders applied and surrendered their licenses.
The new rules, then, essentially make granting video gambling licenses a policy decision, rather than a zoning entitlement, according to a city memo about the regulations.
Last week, at the Committee of the Whole meeting, the proposed cap generated pushback from a couple council members, including criticism that such a regulation would serve as a barrier to entry for businesses in the community.
Nevertheless, the change secured the council’s OK Monday. The cap on licenses was approved 11-3, with Alds. Alan Wolff, Christopher Solfa and Tim Lanci voting against it.
The second ordinance given the green light at Monday’s meeting prohibits
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newly-licensed gambling establishments from being located less than 100 feet from the property line of churches and schools.Because this change may affect existing businesses, the regulations establish that, if a business that currently has a gaming license sells, the new business can continue to offer video gambling at the location as long as the license is transferred within one year, Ald. Abby Beck explained at Monday’s City Council meeting.
The establishment of location restrictions continued to generate criticism Monday, with Solfa calling the regulation “absolutely arbitrary” and “somewhat ridiculous” and saying the state already has similar regulations.
Ald. Kevin Malone, however, responded that the regulation provides a “crystal clear standard” for businesses, suggesting it would prevent a situation where a business applies for a license, gets denied and then has to appeal.
Ultimately, that regulation, too, was approved, with Alds. Wolff, Solfa and Jennifer Baerren voting against it.
The final video gambling-related ordinance will change the city’s zoning code to make video gambling establishments a permitted, rather than conditional, use in all districts it’s currently allowed in. It also establishes a definition for a “video gaming cafe,” but does not permit that use in any city district.
There are specific findings the city has to have to grant or not grant a conditional use. With the cap on the number of licenses approved Monday, approval of a video gambling establishment would be essentially at the city’s discretion.
At Monday’s meeting, Solfa said that, to him, the regulation making video gambling a permitted use is the only one of the three ordinances that “makes any sense at all,” because it would be “removing some of the barriers for people to actually apply for this.”
That final ordinance was also approved Monday in a unanimous vote.