After years of back and forth between those who support the Lazy 8 casino project in Sparks, Nevada and those who oppose it, the resort has finally been approved by the Sparks City Council.

Developer Harvey Whittemore also recently announced that the Lazy 8 will begin construction within two or three years.

The project was first proposed in 1994, when economic conditions were vastly different from what they are now, and Whittemore said on the Nevada NewsMakers television program that obtaining financing for the project would be much more difficult now.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t do this in a timely fashion, two, three, four years ago when these issues would have not been as tough as they are, but we’re confident that we’ll be able to succeed,” Whittemore said in an interview on the show.