Letter Sent To Remind Marsden Of Alcorn's Opposition To Casino Bill

Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn wrote this letter to Virginia Sen. David Marsden (D-Burke) and members of the Senate General Laws and Technology following Tuesday's gaming subcommittee hearing about SB 675 .

January 23, 2024

State Senator David Marsden
General Assembly Building
Senate of Virginia P. O. Box 396
Richmond, VA 23218

Senator Marsden,

I am aware that earlier today the motion to report SB 675 was a 4-4 tied vote in the Senate General Laws Gaming Subcommittee and will be before the full committee tomorrow. Based on comments made during the subcommittee meeting, I want to reiterate my concern and opposition to putting a casino along the Silver Line as we discussed at the Fairfax County Annual Legislative Reception at the Government
Center on Dec. 12, 2023. Since the bill is going to the full committee tomorrow, January 24, I feel compelled to ensure that you and all committee members fully understand my position.

Opposition to the casino proposal is widespread and growing quickly across northern and central Fairfax County – including the Vienna Town Council, the Greater Tysons Citizens Association, the Tanglewood Community Association, the Greater Tysons Green Civic Association, the Reston Citizens Association, the Hunter Mill Defense League, the Great Falls Citizens Association, the Sully District Council of Citizens Associations, the Western Fairfax Council of Civic Associations, the McLean Citizens
Association, Herndon-Reston Indivisible, and the Dulles Area Democrats. These groups represent thousands of concerned and active neighbors. And while I agree the economic environment is changing, this proposal is too extreme. You are asking to put a casino into an emerging community – not an industrial area – that is in close proximity to two high schools and three elementary schools.

As you know, I represent the Hunter Mill District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors which includes Reston and part of Tysons – including one third of the area specified in the bill. During my tenure on the county’s Planning Commission, I was very active in developing the nationally recognized Comprehensive Plan for Tysons. This Comprehensive Plan is an ambitious, carefully crafted multi-
generational plan designed to transform Tysons from the auto-dependent shopping and office center that characterized its first 50 years, to a walkable urban downtown. And after years of work, it was adopted as a community consensus with no opposition at either the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors public hearings. A casino proposal would blow up that community consensus and destabilize the three-generation transformation that is not even one-generation old.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has not asked for this proposal and as the Hunter Mill District Supervisor my recommendation is to vote no on SB 675.

Walter Alcorn
Hunter Mill District Supervisor
Fairfax County, VA