Tobyhanna Twp. Approves Pocono Manor Land Plan

Eric Mark
Pocono Record Writer
December 19, 2006

POCONO PINES — Tobyhanna Township supervisors have given preliminary approval to the land development plan for Pocono Manor Resort and Casino.

Supervisors approved the land plan for developer Greg Matzel's proposed gaming resort featuring a high-rise hotel/casino at a special meeting on Monday.

Matzel, in comments after the meeting, said he is "very pleased" the plan was approved and that he is confident Pocono Manor is the best project to bring gaming to the Poconos.

Supervisors John Kerrick, Heidi Pickard, Hugh Lamberton and Anne Sincavage voted to approve the land plan. Supervisor Jon Berry abstained; he said after the meeting his company is in negotiations to do work at Pocono Manor.

Monday's land plan approval was a big step in the biggest story of the year in Tobyhanna Township — but it could all be moot by Wednesday.

That's when the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will award licenses to 11 slots parlors across the state.

If Pocono Manor does not get a slots license, then the land plan supervisors approved Monday becomes null and void. In the meantime, Matzel and his team can tell the gaming board in final arguments today that their plan is on equal footing with rival casino project Mount Airy Lodge. Paradise Township supervisors approved the Mount Airy land plan in June.

When asked what his plans were if he does not win a slots license, Matzel smiled and replied, "A long winter's nap."

Tobyhanna supervisors had little to say about the Pocono Manor land plan on Monday, but before they voted to approve it members of the public had one last chance to sound off.

Donna Fleming, of Pocono Pines, a longtime opponent of the casino project, broached concerns about fire safety at Matzel's proposed 234-foot-high hotel.

Fleming said she spoke with a fire safety officer at Foxwoods Casino, in Connecticut, who said Foxwoods maintains a full-time fire company on site that is staffed 24 hours a day, and suggested that Pocono Manor would need the same level of fire protection.

Linda Gargiulo, of the Stillwater Estates development, off Route 940 near Interstate 380, wanted supervisors to make sure that Pocono Manor would provide safe access to their community. Traffic plans for the resort call for the I-380/Route 940 interchange to be rebuilt and the entrance to Stillwater Estates to be relocated.

John Rice, the township's special counsel for the Pocono Manor project, said the developers are bound by the conditions supervisors placed on their approval of the land plan, including safe access to Stillwater Estates.

Supervisors attached the same 22 conditions, with two minor amendments, to their approval that the Tobyhanna Planning Commission did when it recommended last month that the plan be approved.

Most of the conditions deal with permit approvals Pocono Manor needs from a slew of regulatory agencies.

Matzel must also build several fields for public recreational use and turn them over to the township.

Pocono Manor and Mount Airy Lodge will compete with proposed casino projects in Allentown, Bethlehem and Gettysburg for two available standalone slots licenses outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The gaming board's decision regarding slots licenses will be posted to the Pocono Record Web site as soon as it is available on Wednesday.

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