The developer of a Franklin County casino has filed an application for a building permit with the state, as negotiations with Columbus officials over annexation remain stalled.

"They're scheduled to break ground this spring. It's very important they remain on schedule to get this casino open by the second half of next year," said Bob Tenenbaum, a spokesman for Penn National Gaming.

Meanwhile, The Dispatch Printing Company, the parent company of The Dispatch, is in a legal battle with the developer over the release of part of the project's structural-permit application with the state.

Columbus is moving ahead with development rules for W. Broad Street that neighborhood leaders say will help make the business district near a planned casino more attractive as it grows.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman's administration sent the rules, called a zoning overlay, to the City Council in early February and the council is to vote on them on Monday. Council members heard a first reading of the overlay last night.

First, Penn National Gaming started looking into drilling wells that could provide enough water for its central Ohio casino.

Now, Franklin Township wants the ability to issue building permits, and Marysville is talking with someone interested in trucking at least 120,000 gallons a day of raw sewage to its treatment plant.

Franklin Township's decision to create a building department has some wondering whether there is any connection to the casino planned for western Franklin County.

The site for Penn National Gaming's casino sits on township land at the former Delphi auto-parts plant. The company originally had said it planned to annex into Columbus to build the casino, but that hasn't happened yet as Columbus and Penn National negotiate over tax incentives and other issues.

 Franklin County is applying for up to $3,000,000 in Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant money from the State of Ohio to help fund the Former Delphi Automotive Plant Redevelopment project located at 200 Georgesville Road, Columbus. Franklin County and its project partner, CD Gaming Ventures, Inc., will hold a public meeting on Monday, March 7, 2011, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. to provide information and receive comments on the grant application. The meeting will be held at Haydocy Buick GMC, 3895 W. Broad St. Columbus.

Since its closure in late 2007, the former Delphi Autmotive Plant has been a scene of urban blight and decay, serving as a demonstration of the associated negative impacts that a shuttered, larges calefacility can have on a neighborhood. Following its construction in the 1940s, the former plant provided thousands of local jobs and critical tax revenue to Franklin Township and the State of Ohio, and was a staple among industrial employers in the area for more than 60 years.

Franklin Township has created thier own building department, and will contract out the work to Asebrook & Co. Architecture. 

The Franklin Township Board of Trustees passed a resolution establishing a building department to locally enforce Ohio State Building Codes during thier special meeting Dec. 28.  

If Penn National Gaming wants flush toilets at its central Ohio casino, it will have to build it in Columbus.

That, more or less, was Mayor Michael B. Coleman's message as he made a rare appearance before the Columbus City Council tonight and asked members to remove the casino site from a 2003 city sewer contract with Franklin County.

There has been a lot of back and forth between the City of Columbus and Penn National regarding the water and annexation. 

This back and forth is not helping our efforts with respect to Weston district revitalization. Until there is clarity on these issues our mission is being put on the back burner by others.
 
Please keep in mind that our focus is on revitalization not the politics between the City and Penn.
 

Did Columbus' casino just shrink?

Since Penn National Gaming first proposed it, company officials have said that their casino would serve an average of 10,000 gamblers per day.

But on their application to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to drill water wells to serve the casino, they list a much-lower number - 4,000 per day - on the line for "No. of visitors/customers."

Casino developers want permission to drill wells that would free them from relying on Columbus' water lines.

Wells would take Columbus' key bargaining chip - water service - off the table as city leaders seek to annex the casino site, now in Franklin Township near W. Broad Street and I-270.

Executives from Penn National Gaming said yesterday that they were promised financial support from Columbus when they agreed to move their casino from a voter-approved site in the Arena District.

But city officials say they promised only support for a request for state environmental-cleanup money and political support for the move