Tysons Casino Would Be Harmful To Fairfax County: Citizen Activist

TYSONS, VA — Sally Horn, who chairs the Greater Tysons Citizens Coalition, made the following statement to members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors during the public comment section of its Feb. 20 meeting.

Good afternoon.

Since 2008, we have been advocating for a Tysons where people will want to live, work and play; businesses small and large will want to locate and can succeed; and the traffic congestion and safety challenges associated with growing Tysons are mitigated.

We recognize that the Board’s initial communications with the Virginia Senate focused on process concerns, because neither you nor we, your constituents, had a seat at the table [when S.B. 675 was developed].

Sadly, however, those initial communications have been interpreted as tacit support for a casino in Tysons.

For example, in the February 6 meeting of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee [to decide on the fate of S.B. 675], Senator Marsden said: “Fairfax County did not take a position against this legislation…they had certainly some concerns around process issues.”

Senator Surovell stated at that same meeting that “The Board of Supervisors has not said no. They’ve said they want some changes to it and they want to talk about it.”

I am here to ask you to tell the Senators and other casino advocates that your initial cautious communications did not constitute support for S.B. 675.

Let me enumerate some of the reasons why a Tysons casino would be harmful to the County, Tysons, and the communities surrounding Tysons.

Tysons is a family-friendly environment, with a growing residential base, parks, shopping, and recreation; a casino does not complement this mix.

A casino would damage the County’s ability to continue to attract new housing and commercial construction projects and new Tysons residents.

Problems associated with casinos very well may cause potential corporations to bypass Tysons and could even cause current businesses to leave.

Small local businesses in and around Tysons are privately worried that a Tysons casino likely would cause them to lose business.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the impact on home values in an urban environment where a casino is built appears to be unambiguously negative.

Fairfax County would need to spend potentially large sums of money to address the increased traffic congestion and improve the public safety and social network infrastructures to deal with the well-documented challenges associated with casinos, especially in urban areas.

Finally, it is highly doubtful that a casino will bring such significant amounts of money to Fairfax that the County would simultaneously be able to give everyone a $500-600 tax break, close the current County budgetary and Metro funding shortfalls, close the school construction funding gap, and compensate for the current, likely temporary loss in commercial tax revenues [due to the current temporary downturn in the commercial market] – as casino proponents have suggested.

Please let casino supporters [in and out of the Virginia State Senate] know that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors does not support a casino in Tysons, will work to discourage re-introduction of authorizing legislation and, if necessary, work to encourage rejection of such legislation.

Thank you.

Sally Horn
Chair, Greater Tysons Citizens Coalition