An agreement between California’s Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians and Sonoma County secures the band’s waiver of annual payments to the county for two years, while the tribe agrees not to put a casino on 277 acres it bought near Highway 101 near Petaluma until 2031 and maybe longer.
The Covid-19 pandemic hit the tribe hard, forcing it to close its River Rock Casino in Geyserville in Northern California for more than two months last year. So getting the County to agree to forgive its annual payments of $750,000 as part of the extension of the 2008 tribal-county memorandum of understanding (MOU) was helpful.
The Sonoma board of supervisors approved the extension in April. The extended MOU means that opponents of casino expansion can rest easy for more years. Opponents include the city of Petaluma, where 80 percent of voters in 2006 said they opposed the casino relocation.
The tribal-state gaming compact gives the tribe the right to build a second casino. That outcome has been considered more likely since the Graton Resort & Casino opened in 2013, cutting into the River Rock Casino’s market.
