The Bureau of Indian Affairs has approved of putting 62 acres in California’s wine country of Sonoma County into trust for the Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians, which will allow them to seek to build a casino there—which would be the county’s third Indian casino.
But if the 540-member tribe does build a casino along the historic Highway 101, it won’t be without a fight from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, which has promised “reviewing our legal options to determine the best course of action to ensure the community does not bear the cost of the casino project impacts.” They say they fear a “behemoth” and “gargantuan” project.
Supervisor James Gore told the Press Democrat that the federal government ignored many of the County’s concerns about putting the land into trust and that the BIA didn’t keep the County informed about the process, except for the final result. This “creates a situation in which local governments and tribal governments are unnecessarily pitted against each other,” he said.
Tribal spokesman Rob Muelrath says the tribe hopes to build a $320 million 575,600 square foot casino resort, a 244-room hotel, a convention center and entertainment center, but the final size will be determined later after a dialogue between the tribe and local government. “They want to be part of the community; they want to be good neighbors,” he said.
Before the tribe can do that it will need to negotiate and state tribal gaming compact with Governor Jerry Brown, a process that has yet to commence.
The federal government in 1983 restored the tribe, which had lost recognition.
The restored reservation is adjacent to the tribe’s original reservation of 28-acres, which was abolished in the 1960s during the time when it was U.S. policy to end the reservation system. Some of that land was used for Highway 101.
The county’s largest casino (as well as one of the largest in the state) is the $800 Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park. Its smallest is the 14-year old River Rock Casino near Geyserville, which has suffered catastrophic cuts in revenue since he Graton facility opened.
The Cloverdale casino would attract from the lucrative Bay Area market, a market that some gaming experts say is nearing or at saturation, not only from the Graton and River Rock casinos, but from seven small casinos in Mendocino County and four in Lake County.
Because of that saturation, some financial experts say it may be difficult for the tribe to finance the project. Since 2007 the tribe has sought to build a casino and has been linked with Alaska-based Sealaska, a Native American corporation.
About 25 percent of the tribe lives under the poverty line. The tribe hopes that a casino will start to reverse that trend.
