California’s Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation has announced plans to expand its Cache Creek Casino Resort hotel, located in Brooks, along Highway 16.
Last week it filed a Supplemental Notice of Preparation (NOP) of tribal Environmental Report with the state and Yolo County for a project that will include a restaurant, pool, ballroom, and 459 addition rooms to join the existing 200-room casino.
The casino first opened in 2004. The addition, the first since it opened, would be located on land near the south parking lot.
The supplemental notice was needed because the initial plans had to be revised due to an error in the design that didn’t include additional height for the 1,325-seat ballroom. The change makes it possible to add more hotel rooms by using some space that hadn’t been used for anything else.
The existing hotel has been maxed out on many occasions, according to the report. Besides dealing with that need the proposal would also provide amenities, such as fine dining, that are not available in the area.
Cache Creek spokesman Mike Traum told the Daily News Democrat, “Throughout the entire week we are having to turn potential customers away.” He said construction would probably begin early next year. That allows time for the tribe to maneuver the various levels of approval, including environmental review.
The tribe recently came to an agreement for new compact with the state that would allow it up to 3,500 slots—it currently has 2,000—and requires the tribe to pay the state $33 million annually.
Although the County has no approval role in this project, it does have the right to comment on the proposal. Which it did. It noted concerns with “the project’s use of additional groundwater and the potential to overdraft the groundwater basin, which could deplete adjacent wells and degrade groundwater quality,” County Administrator Patrick Blacklock wrote. “The County has similar concerns with any increased usage of Cache Creek water resources.”
Blacklock also wrote that increase resort employees might increase demands for county services. “These impacts must be thoroughly analyzed and mitigated,” he wrote.
