Scarborough Downs is looking for a warmer reception in York County for a future racino.

Representatives of the harness racing track, including spokesman Bob Tardy and track attorney Ed MacColl, met with York County’s 12-Town Group on Jan. 21 to gauge local officials’ interests in allowing the track to relocate to the area and have slot machines on the track’s grounds.

Scarborough Downs has been weighing relocation options since Scarborough voters in November defeated a proposal to allow the track to operate a racino.

“The whole purpose of this meeting was Scarborough Downs is interested in relocating, obviously, because they are not having any luck in Scarborough,” said Don Marean of Hollis, who is a lobbyist for the Maine harness racing industry. “Scarborough Downs had expressed in a general conversation that they would like to relocate, and I said I could get us into a meeting with the 12-Town Group.”

The 12-town group is made up of York County representatives from 12 inland York County towns – Hollis, Buxton, Limington, Alfred, Dayton, Lyman, Waterboro, Shapleigh, Acton, Sanford, Limerick and Newfield.

No location spots were determined at the meeting, but York County officials did ask several questions regarding pros and cons, Marean said.

Their biggest concern was infrastructure and access to the track, since many of the towns in western York County are not close to Interstate 95, Marean said.

“I would agree,” said Joe Wagner, Maine District 139 representative for Waterboro and part of Lyman. “That is a concern because the roads we have now aren’t built to sustain the traffic we have now.”

Besides infrastructure, Wagner said, he wonders whether allowing a track with slots in York County makes economic sense since Maine’s only racino, Hollywood Slots in Bangor, is projecting a loss of $3 million in revenue by the end of this year.

“That shows that this is not a recession-proof industry,” Wagner said.

Last year, Downs officials had proposed adding slots to the track as a part of a $200 million commercial and residential development that would give the town a center and $8 million in annual revenues. Pitched by Gene Beaudoin, the Connecticut developer who was behind bringing a Cabela’s outdoor sporting goods store to Scarborough, the proposal had the backing of Penn National Gaming Inc., which spent more than $60,000 on a campaign in support of the project. Penn National owns Hollywood Slots.

In November, Scarborough voters voted against a proposal to develop 535 acres owned by the track. The proposal lost by just 239 votes, 5,565-5,804, in an election that drew a record number to the polls

Despite the narrow margin, it was the second defeat for slot machines in Scarborough, making the possibility of slots ever coming to the track at its longtime location in Scarborough unlikely, if not impossible.

“The track is exploring all the options that it can think of to find a path to save harness racing,” said Ed MacColl, a Portland attorney representing Downs’ owner Sharon Terry. “The meeting was a good way for them to begin meeting people from several communities.”

A law passed by statewide referendum in 2003 allows slot machines at existing harness racing tracks with local approval, leading to Hollywood Slots at the state’s other harness racing track in Bangor. Scarborough Downs, however, has found approval to be much more difficult to win in southern Maine. Saco and Westbrook have also rejected proposals to allow slot machines associated with the Downs.

Industry insiders say they wonder about the future of harness racing without slots in southern Maine. Proponents of the slot proposal said the revenue would have increased the purses, which would have in turn increased the quality of the racing.

According to a recent Maine Department of Agriculture study, horse racing has a $100 million impact in the state.

“We’d like to see things be better than they are in this business,” Marean said. “While I don’t personally gamble, a racino at a track does provide jobs and revenue to the host community.”

Moving to York County could be a hard sell, Wagner said.

“Personally I would not be in favor of it,” he said. “I do feel for those who are fighting for the harness racing industry and one thing they are fighting is general disinterest.”

Marean said he is also speaking with another Maine community that might want to allow the track to relocate there but wouldn’t say what town until he had finalized scheduling a meeting.

If Scarborough Downs leaves, that could help Scarborough’s future development, said Harvey Rosenfeld, executive director of the Scarborough Economic Development Corp.

“If they do move the that track, that would open up about 535 for future development that I think would be very interesting for developers and the town,” Rosenfeld said. “I think that a lot of people in town would be sad to see them leave, but Scarborough’s long-term health depends on development.”

Rosenfeld said he has approached track representatives to schedule a meeting to discuss the Downs’ future. He hasn’t had success yet, he said.

“We would like to see what their aspirations are and discuss ways the town could assist them if they chose to stay here or, if they were to leave, what we could do with their property and how to deal with that,” Rosenfeld said.

Scarborough Downs departure also means the town would lose about $4,252 in personal property taxes, taxes imposed on business equipment, said Scarborough Town Assessor Paul Lesperance.

The 535 acres generates about $118,000 per year in real estate taxes, Lesperance said. That wouldn’t go down too much if at all because Terry or a new owner would still own the property and pay real estate taxes based on its assessed value of $9.7 million he said.

“If they left there would be some effect, but it would not be enormous,” Lesperance said. “The land would still generate taxes.”

If a track were to relocate to York County, that would mean about 400-600 jobs generated for that town, Marean said.

“That’s a huge impact on that town economically,” he said.

As for tax implications, it’s too early to tell, Wagner said, because no one knows what town would take a track, what the property value would be, how much property would be bought and what the real estate tax rate on that property would be.

As for York County, the process is only in the preliminary stages and the meeting was only to gauge interest, said Joe Hanslip, Sanford Town Council chairman.

“Nearly anything is possible, but it would certainly be a long process of dialogue and fact-finding,” Hanslip said. “We would certainly want to schedule numerous public meetings for public input and it would have to begin with serious dialogue.”

Where to put the track is also an issue, Wagner said.

“I was trying to picture where they could event put a track right now,” he said. “I can’t even think of any possibilities.”

No further meetings have been scheduled with York County officials, Marean said.