Graton Resort & Casino, the largest casino in Northern California, wants to expand with a 200-room hotel that would double the number of rooms the resort now offers. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria have requested the federal government to do the expansion.
The tribe has forwarded the 853-page Draft Tribal Environmental Impact Report (DTEIR) to Sonoma County and has held a town hall style meeting with residents in Santa Rosa. Besides being attended by residents, officials from various county agencies also attended and took questions from the audience.
Some residents asked questions about crime and others were concerned about the effect the hotel would have on groundwater levels. The casino anticipates increasing its water usage by 40 percent, to 267,000 gallons per day.
The hotel would employ over 1,000 workers. Besides the hotel rooms, the building would include a banquet area and meeting rooms. It would be done in the same style as the first hotel.
The casino has been operating near Rohnert Park since 2013. It opened its hotel last November as part of a $175 million expansion to the casino, which originally cost $850 million. Almost as soon as it opened it was fully booked—prompting the tribe to seek to double the available rooms.
