Public Design Commission Delays Vote on Metropolitan Park Casino Resort

_{Construction of the Metropolitan Park casino resort is currently underway near Citi Field in Queens. (Photo: Edward Westmacott / Alamy)}

New York City’s Public Design Commission decided not to vote on the proposed design of the Metropolitan Park casino resort complex on Tuesday following a heated meeting in which local opponents urged the panel to allow for more public input.

Over the course of the four-hour hearing, opponents of the casino – backed by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International – argued that the casino would place further burdens on local communities that are already disproportionately impacted by flooding and other climate issues.

Commission Shares Community Stormwater Concerns

Some speakers questioned whether Metropolitan Park, which will add a casino, hotel, music venue, and extensive park space in what is now the Citi Field parking lot, was properly approved in the first place. The proposal earned strong support from local community boards and was awarded a casino license by the New York State Gaming Commission in December 2025.

Commission members noted that their role wasn’t to potentially overturn or stop the plans for a casino that had already been approved. However, it is responsible for advocating for equitable designs for public spaces, including both landscapes and buildings.

Many speakers had complaints on those grounds, too.

“Our residents walk knee-deep in polluted stormwater and sewage overflow every time it rains,” Flushing resident Jack Hu said at a rally before the meeting. “Steve Cohen’s project would add a massive casino [and] up to 2,300 hotel rooms on a floodplain, putting further strain on our aging sewage infrastructure, redirecting polluted stormwater and sewage into Flushing Bay and into the roads and basements of our homes.”

That argument appeared to hold merit with the Public Design Commission. The panel voted unanimously to defer its vote on the proposed design, asking for more information on plans for stormwater management and other design elements – including proposed gates and the opaque glass that would be used around the casino – before making a final decision.

“It’s just the sequence of things that makes it so we don’t understand the underlying conditions,” Public Design Commission President Deborah Marton said. “We can’t really think about this until [we] make sure we understand the site as a whole.”

Supporters: Don’t Hold Up ‘Thousands of Jobs’

It’s unclear as to whether the decision could lead to delays in the construction of Metropolitan Park, where developers have hoped to have the casino open by 2030. The team behind the development downplayed the result of the hearing.

“The project’s design reflects years of community engagement and input from our neighbors, and was developed with an all-New York design team,” Metropolitan Park spokesperson Karl Rickett said in a statement.

Meanwhile, local supporters of the Metropolitan Park project said the Commission shouldn’t stand in the way of the resort.

“They should not hold up thousands of jobs for Queens,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said via The New York Post. “They can make things more difficult, but they can’t prevent the project from happening.”

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