THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS

MAYOR DOMENIC J. SARNO HOME OF THE BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME

December 6, 2012 Honorable Alex B. Morse, Mayor City of Holyoke Mayors Office 536 Dwight Street Holyoke, MA 01040
Regional Mayors Meeting to Discuss Gaming Resort Proposals

Dear Mayor Morse: Thank you for invitation. Your correspondence has been forwarded to Springfields Chief Development Officer, Kevin Kennedy to consider how best for Springfield to interact with the planned event. As Chief Development Officer Mr. Kennedy is leading the Citys internal review team and also sits with an Advisory Committee consisting with a broad cross section of community representatives who will share with me their perspective of the relative pros and cons of each casino proposal submitted to Springfield through our ongoing process. As Mayor of the third largest City in New England, I am always willing to participate personally or to send a representative, to consider important issues that require regional cooperation. The world class gaming developers in Springfield have proposed the largest private economic development project in the history of Western Massachusetts which, while not a panacea, has the potential to bring thousands of jobs to the City and the region and a catalyst for needed economic vitality, and a proper subject of discussion at the appropriate time. However, developers participating in Phase II of Springfields process have until January 3, 2013 to submit their proposals. Under the RFQJP process they are required to submit, among other things, information as to how they plan to mitigate any adverse impacts of the Project on the City and surrounding communities. Without the submission of traffic studies, engineering reports or other expert analysis, discussions at the proposed meeting may lack the substance required to address any of the relevant criteria on any objective basis.

City of Springfield 36 Court Street Springfield, MA 01103-1687. (413) 787-6100

Our process will ultimately result in the negotiation of one or more community host agreements for approval by City Council, voters, and, ultimately, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) as required by the Gaming Act. The Gaming Act also requires any applicant for a gaming license to negotiate an agreement with any surrounding community. As defined in the Massachusetts Gaming Act (the Act), a surrounding community is a community located within proximity to a host community which the MGC determines experiences or is likely to experience impacts from the development or operation of a gaming establishment. We believe that the MGC will have to determine which communities constitute surrounding communities on a case-by-case basis depending upon the location of a particular casino, traffic patterns to and from the proposed casino, infrastructure leading to, surrounding and impacted by the proposed casino and so on. We believe that the MGC can more clearly define the impact that must be experienced by a community in order for the community to be a surrounding community. We believe that the impact experienced by such community must be direct and ascertainable and be of a nature that can be supported with or demonstrated by reports or studies conducted by the applicant, the surrounding community and/or their respective consultants. At a recent MGC meeting the discussion indicated that Regional Planning Authoritys will play an important role in helping to determine what communities will be considered a surrounding community as defined by the Act. Once Springfield has chosen one or more developers to negotiate a community host agreement, it will consider the impacts based on direct impacts and objective evidence. Thereafter, host community agreement negotiations will be initiated and will include input from regional tourism, business, restaurant and convention entities to engage in a dialogue to bring consensus around the issues confronted by surrounding communities, and, hopefully, to have support a casino proposal in Springfield. Respectfully,

Morp6menicJ. Sarno