With 80 percent of precincts reporting at 11:30 p.m., 65 percent of voters cast ballot in favor the proposal and 35 percent voted against, according to unofficial results from the Westchester County Board of Elections.
"One of the reasons I wanted to have the referendum is that people were really critical of this" said Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. "But the public spoke and it sends a strong message to the planning board that this is what the people want."
The Greenburgh Town Board voted in support of a 15-year lease in August, but turned it over to the public for final approval. The proposal for a 94,000-square-foot dome, called The Westchester Field House, to be built on the former Frank's Nursery property.
The lease with Game On was hotly debated in town board meetings and generated a lawsuit against the town by citizen activists and a competitor.
Martin Hewitt, Game On project manager, said the project would provide more than $5 million to the town of Greenburgh, plus rent payments. The complex's construction would give children a place to train and practice year-round, and provide a track for seniors to walk during the cold winter months for free, the developer said.
Critics of the field house's construction argued that environmental issues made the proposed site a bad choice and that the town wouldn't net the profit that developers claimed. Opponents also said the 80-foot-high complex would bring a huge disturbance to quiet neighborhoods nearby.
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