In Connecticut, yesterday reportedly saw the plan to build the Mohegan Sun Foxwoods East Windsor satellite casino take another step forward after the $300 million project was awarded with its special zoning permit.

According to a Tuesday report from local television broadcaster, WVIT, the East Windsor Planning and Zoning Commission approved the award via a unanimous vote with the five-member body now due to use its next meeting on June 27 to consider some of the finer points of the project including sidewalk and driveway locations.

“It’s consistent regarding the zone in town so it’s consistent with all the other commercial development and it would be a tremendous economic opportunity for East Windsor and the region in general,” Joe Ouellette, Chairman for the East Windsor Planning and Zoning Commission, told the broadcaster.

A project from the MMCT Venture, which is a joint enterprise of the casino-operating Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority and Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, the Mohegan Sun Foxwoods East Windsor is reportedly scheduled to open in the spring of 2020 complete with a 100,000 sq ft gaming floor offering approximately 1,800 slots alongside 60 gaming tables.

However, WVIT reported that not everyone is looking forward to the premiere of the new 188,000 sq ft entertainment and gaming venue on the site of a former Showcase Cinema franchise. Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts International, which will open its $960 million MGM Springfield facility only 13 miles away in the neighboring state of Massachusetts on August 24, has been one of the tribal project’s biggest critics as it has been lobby hard for legislators to instead initiate a competitive bidding process for the property’s license.