Las Vegas Sands proposes widening parts of Meadowbrook Parkway in Nassau casino bid

Las Vegas Sands looks to widen portions of the Meadowbrook Parkway as part of a $150 million plan to blunt the impact of a new casino resort on the site of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, according to a draft environmental impact report released Thursday.

Among the top mitigation measures proposed by the multibillion-dollar Nevada-based company include adding one lane on each side of a stretch of the 90-year-old Meadowbrook from the Northern State Parkway to Hempstead Turnpike and spending an estimated $20 million to build a new well to supply water to the Coliseum site, homes and businesses around it, according to the report and Sands officials. 

The 28,000-page environmental report, known as the DEIS, includes engineering studies of the project's impact on traffic, water, electricity and addresses noise and air pollution as well as public health and socioeconomic concerns. 

The DEIS was prepared by VHB Engineering, Surveying, Landscape Architecture and Geology, P.C. based in Hauppauge and its completion represents a significant step in the environmental evaluation of the 72-acre, county-owned Coliseum site in Uniondale. 

Sands, headquartered in Las Vegas and once a mainstay on the famed casino strip, has pitched a $6 billion "integrated resort" on the Coliseum property that would include a casino, hotels, convention center, live entertainment venue, retail, restaurants, open space and a spa. The company announced its intentions in 2023 to re-enter the North America market with a project in Nassau, after closing its Vegas resort to build and operate six sites in Asia.

The Nassau casino resort is contingent on rezoning the area and winning a highly competitive state gaming license expected to be awarded at the end of 2025. 

"The Meadowbrook has been a traffic problem for central Nassau County for decades with numerous choke points and lack of investment," Michael Levoff, Sands senior vice president of strategy and public affairs, said in a statement Thursday.

Levoff also noted Hempstead "currently operates in a water deficit, a condition that hasn't been addressed despite significant development area." 

"We will invest millions of dollars into a new well with excess capacity that will become available to Town of Hempstead residents," he said.  

As part of a multi-step, state-mandated environmental review, Nassau County lawmakers voted unanimously Wednesday to make the DEIS publicly available for review and written comment through Jan. 6, with a public hearing scheduled for Dec. 9 at 5 p.m. in the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building on Franklin Avenue in Mineola. 

Community opposition to the project includes concerns over traffic congestion, water usage and negative social impact on students at nearby Hofstra University, Nassau Community College and Kellenberg Memorial High School.

A lawsuit filed by Hofstra University against the administration of County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the 19-member County Legislature and the county Planning Commission cited violations of the Open Meetings law and prompted Sands officials to restart the environmental review. 

The project has faced opposition from the "Say No To The Casino" civic group, which in a statement on Thursday reaffirmed its stance that the project will "produce economic harm, environmental harm, and egregious societal harm."

The project's supporters include construction and trades labor unions, local chambers of commerce and minority business groups who say the project would be a boon to the local economy. 

Sands holds a 42-year lease that allows the company to operate the Coliseum but must complete the state environmental review to obtain a lease that would allow development of the property.

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.