GETTYSBURG -- Lumberyard manager Don O'Brien was whacking golf balls yesterday at the Gettysburg Driving Range, located where busy four-lane Routes 30 and 15 intersect, about three miles from Gettysburg's historic town square and four miles from the famous Civil War battlefield and national cemetery.

		Map: Proposed Gettysburg gaming resort and spa

The 42-acre site, which now is just a large, grassy field with a vacant house and barn on it, is the spot where local motorcycle dealer David LeVan and his partners want to build a slot machine casino, performing arts theater and health spa that would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

O'Brien said that while he doesn't gamble himself, he's not opposed to a tourist magnet like a casino, which might work well with Gettysburg's already powerful attractions -- its historic battlefield and museum and its downtown of quaint shops and restaurants.

"There's a lot of tourist traffic through here in the summer season and a casino would give people one more reason to come," he said. "It would also supply some night life."

LeVan, 59, owner of Battlefield Harley-Davidson, grew up in Gettysburg but spent 30 years in Philadelphia as an accountant and then chief executive officer of Conrail. He left Conrail in 1997, when it was taken over by Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads.

LeVan, who sports a ponytail and a noticeable tan, met reporters yesterday to outline his casino/spa/entertainment proposal, which likely will compete against two or more other stand-alone casino proposals for a state license from the new Gaming Control Board.

LeVan said his project will help the local economy by creating "over 1,000" permanent hospitality jobs plus hundreds of temporary construction jobs, and could generate $10 million in new revenue for local schools and Adams County government.

He couldn't given an exact price for the project, except to say that the "hundreds of millions of dollars" will come from private sources. There is already some publicly funded lane-widening planned for the intersection of Route 30, a heavily commercial east-west road, with Route 15, which goes north to Harrisburg and south into Maryland.

Now that he has a site in mind, he said, the next step is to form a partnership with a national casino company that would run the slots venue. He didn't drop any potential names.

The 42 acres that LeVan has in mind are owned by another Gettysburg developer, Robert Monahan. He isn't one of LeVan's investors but is building a major project of his own, the $250 million "Gateway Gettysburg," directly across Route 30 from the casino site. It will consist of four hotels, a convention center, an eight-screen movie theater, restaurants and retail. Monahan's project is under construction.

Monahan was with LeVan yesterday and said he thinks his hotel/retail project would fit nicely with the casino. He's willing to sell LeVan 42 acres where the driving range now sits, if LeVan can get a state gaming license.

LeVan and his partners probably will compete with stand-alone casino proposals for sites in the Lehigh Valley and in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.

The July 2004 slots law guarantees that Philadelphia will get two stand-alone casinos and Pittsburgh one. Two others will go elsewhere in the state. There also will be seven racetrack/casinos and two resort hotel casinos.

The Gettysburg casino site is about 50 miles south of a racetrack/casino that will be operated by Penn National Racing (in Grantville, northeast of Harrisburg) and about 70 miles north of another Penn National facility, Charles Town Races and Slots in eastern West Virginia.

Even if LeVan's group gets a gaming license from the state, he said he doesn't expect his facility to be open until 2008.

Competition from other sites isn't the only hurdle for LeVan. There's a lot of skepticism in this socially conservative area of small towns. State Rep. Stephen Maitland, R-Adams, said a poll of his constituents last year showed 68 percent opposed gambling in the county.

LeVan said a telephone poll done by a Pittsburgh consulting firm, Brabender Cox, showed "a majority" of 300 respondents like the casino idea. He declined to give specific figures.

Adams County Commissioner Lucy Lott, who along with other local officials attended a breakfast briefing with LeVan yesterday, said she knows and likes LeVan, a Gettysburg College trustee and local philanthropist who's given money to the college and to the restoration of a historic performing arts theater in downtown Gettysburg called The Majestic.

"David does things that benefit the community," Lott said. "This is definitely a conservative area and I'm sure there will be some issues regarding that. But I think he's targeting visitors and tourists [for the casino], especially people from Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia, rather than local folks."

Some prominent historic group officials are willing to consider the casino idea.

Robert Wilburn, the former president of the Carnegie Institute and Library in Pittsburgh, now is president of the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation.

"I don't reject the idea out of hand, but I want to see what the plans are," he said yesterday. "I don't really see any reason why it can't coexist with the national military park."

The proposed site along Route 30 "seems appropriate for a business establishment" like a casino, he said, and is already quite commercial, with motels, restaurants, stores and a Wal-Mart.

Barbara Franco, executive director of the state Historical and Museum Commission, said a key factor is "preserving the historical fabric" of an area.

She noted that Route 15 was "a major pathway up from Virginia and Maryland" for Confederate troops who trekked to Gettysburg to fight in the historic three-day battle in early July 1863. She wants to protect open space and the "landscape of historical significance" in the area.

She said there already is "tremendous pressure for development in the Gettysburg area, especially along the Maryland border," a few miles south of town.

The state Gaming Control Board probably won't consider applications for the five stand-alone casinos until next year. First, the seven board members have said, the board will approve gaming licenses for seven racetrack/casinos in Pennsylvania -- four that already exist and three still to be built.