A proposed casino in Elk Grove, California, has been put in limbo because while the outgoing Obama administration said the Wilton Rancheria Indian tribe could put 36 acres into trust for a 0 million casino—the Trump administration has not confirmed that.
One of the final acts of the Obama Interior Department was to agree to take the 36 acres into trust for the tribe, but they didn’t do so officially. Nevertheless, Tribal Chairman called the statement “a major milestone in our plans.”
The casino watchdog group Stand Up for California claims that the Department of the Interior has delayed putting the land into trust because Stand Up requested a postponement., which it filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. The group claimed that the department should do nothing while a referendum and a separate lawsuit are pending.
Most likely the main impediment to action is the transition from one administration to another. Trump’s nominee to head the department has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. At the same time the president’s chief of staff has put the brakes on any new regulatory actions until they can be reviewed.\
The land is part of an unfinished mall owned by the Howard Hughes Corp. near Highway 99. Howard Hughes claims the casino is necessary for it to finish building the mall, something the town of Elk Grove has eagerly sought for several years.
This situation is complicated by the fact that opponents of the casino gathered enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot that would retract an action the city council took last October that allowed the owners of the land out of an agreement with the city and let them sell part of the land to the tribe. The petition campaign was largely conducted anonymously for three weeks before the involvement of Knighted Ventures L.L.C. was revealed.
The council voted last week to postpone for two weeks scheduling the referendum for later this year. Council members didn’t explain the delay except that “there was new information that was received from the federal level,” according to a city spokesman.
The referendum to stop the casino was largely funded by a group that works with card clubs in Sacramento that could face ruinous competition from the Elk Grove casino. The city council has the choice of reversing its action of October, as called for in the petition, or to schedule an election.
