The eight members of Henrico County’s Virginia General Assembly delegation Tuesday sent a letter to Churchill Downs Incorporated, urging the company to withdraw plans to operate a gambling facility featuring historical horse racing machines in the Staples Mill Shopping Center in Henrico’s Near West End.
The company submitted plans last month to open the gambling facility at the 25,000-square-foot former site of Surplus Furniture and Mattress in the shopping center, located at the intersection of Glenside Drive and Staples Mill Road. Because the site is already zoned for B-2 (business district) usage, which allows as many as 175 historical horse racing machines and parimutuel betting without public input, the county cannot legally prohibit the company from opening such a location there.
