Dayton Plan Board approves of racino re-zoning

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - The Hollywood Dayton Raceway is on track.

The proposed racino has now jumped another hurdle as the Dayton Plan Board unanimously voted to recommend that the re-zoning move forward.

City Commissioners must now sign off on the plan.  

"This really was a presentation of pretty much the whole project that was shown.  All of the drawings of the site and what the buildings are going to look like, how the traffic is going to work and where the new traffic lights are going to go, how people will go in and out of the facility.  So, this really is a significant step in this process," explains Bob Tenenbaum with Penn National Gaming.

Penn National Gaming wants to build the racino at the site of an old Delphi plant off Wagner Ford Road.

Plans include a harness racing track and video slot machines.

"There was a whole variety of concerns; from the well-field to traffic and everything in between and, ultimately, we feel we've come to an agreeable site plan here, through a lot of back and forth," says Tony Kroeger, Dayton City Planner.

Developers say the racino would bring 1,000 permanent jobs, as well as 1,000 temporary construction jobs and it would provide an economic boost to the area.

"Hopefully, you'll start to see businesses start to spring up in that particular area.  The creation of the jobs is obviously a big economic driver and we think, from an economic development standpoint, considering that this is a site that had a Delphi plant that's gone, is really going to be of economic benefit to the city," comments Tenenbaum.

But, the racino isn't out of the woods yet.

"We have two things pending before the state, one is permission to relocate our Toledo racetrack to Dayton, that's in the hands of the State Racing Commission and then we will have to get our video lottery terminal license from the Ohio Lottery Commission and both of those are in the process now," explains Tenenbaum.

City commissioners will now vote on the plan January 16th.  

Penn National hopes to start construction early next year.  

The racino is expected to be up and running by 2014.