Local Advisory Panel Created for Belmont Park
Image:
Description:
Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
The New York Racing Association will name three people to the Belmont Park advisory board
After 10 years of delays, neighborhoods groups near Belmont Park have won their fight to get the state of New York to create a local advisory panel that will have input on development and major issues that arise at the track.
Similar advisory panels have already been in place for more than 10 years at Saratoga Race Course and Aqueduct Racetrack.
The Belmont legislation, approved in June by state lawmakers in Albany, was signed late in the evening Dec. 20 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The Belmont advisory board will have 15 members serving without compensation for two-year terms. Five will be appointed by the Nassau County executive, with four of them required to be a resident of Elmont. Two will come from Hempstead, appointed by that town's supervisor, and those members must reside in Elmont, too. Other local mayors and village boards get appointees to the panel; the New York Racing Association, which runs Belmont, gets to name three people to the group; and two will be appointees of the Queens Community Board 13 in New York City.
The measures were sponsored by Sen. Anna Kaplan and Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages; both are Democrats from Nassau County.
Lawmakers had said creation of the advisory group had become a top priority for many neighborhood leaders in areas near the track. Kaplan, in June, said the panel will "finally give our constituents the voice that they deserve.''
"This advisory board seeks to protect the quality of life for the surrounding communities and will offer great insight into the concerns and needs of the neighboring residents,'' legislators wrote this year in a bill memo supporting the idea.
The panel is intended to serve as a liaison between the community and NYRA to address everything from crowd control issues during the Belmont Stakes (G1) to any future development plans NYRA might have for the track.