Cranberry Planning Commission denies arcade request, approves North Pointe development
CRANBERRY TWP — Cranberry Township’s planning advisory commission denied Skill Games 777’s request for a conditional use application for an amusement arcade during its meeting Monday, July 27.
Skill Games’s proposal sought approval for the installation of eight amusement devices within an existing tenant space in Unit 10A at Excel Center, along Route 19, but was denied out of caution over a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision on skill games.
The Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled in June that skill games are slot machines and are therefore prohibited outside of casinos. It also issued a 120-day stay on enforcement, giving Pennsylvania’s lawmakers four months to create a legal framework to determine whether or not to keep skill games operating and how to tax them. That legal framework has not yet materialized.
Skill Games 777’s legal representative, David Nernberg, noted the conditional use application is only for amusement devices, not skill games.
“We are seeking simply approval for an amusement arcade,” Nernberg said.
“The nature of those devices may change, depending on what legislation decides,” he added, but those requests would be made in a separate request.
The commission moved forward with a denial and a recommendation the request be sent to the board of supervisors so the board and Skill Games 777’s legal representation can work out the arcade’s legality at the next supervisors meeting.
The commission also approved an application for the 16.56-acre North Pointe at Cranberry residential development, planned to be located at the intersection of Route 19 and Dutilh Road.
The brown field development would convert the old location of Doyle Equipment into a mixed use development, Ron Henshaw, director of Planning and Development Services, said.
The next planning advisory meeting will take place 6 p.m. Aug. 31 in council chambers at the Cranberry Township Municipal Building. There is no meeting the first week of August.
