Opponents of the casino resort proposed by Redding Rancheria in Northern California planned to address the Redding City Council last week.
The rancheria hopes to replace its existing Win-River Resort and Casino with a new and improved casino on 232 acres private land adjacent to Interstate 5 called Strawberry Fields.
The tribe wants the Bureau of Indian Affairs to put the land into trust. One opponent owns a 500-acre ranch next to the proposed casino. Another calls the proposed casino resort “a private property and concern for local businesses and community concern.”
Others have environmental concerns or worry about noise, traffic and crime.
They and others have formed a group called Speak Up Shasta, whose spokesman Robb Korinke told the Redding Record, “We have environmentally-minded folks. We have neighbors who are really worried about the traffic impacts, the noise, the congestion.”
Korinke added, “It’s not just that people don’t want a casino or don’t want something there. It’s such a large project in a place that is undeveloped, that is functionally in a neighborhood.”
Tribal Chairman Jack Potter Jr. commented that the official period for public comment on the proposal has closed. The BIA held a public hearing when comments were taken in May.
The city council has raised several of these concerns itself and publicly worried that the entertainment venues envisioned by the tribe would hurt the city’s Redding Civic Auditorium’s business.
If the BIA puts the land into trust, the tribe plans to build a nearly 70,000-square-foot casino with a 250-room hotel, restaurants, a conference center, an event center and an amphitheater. It will replace an 84-room hotel and increase the gaming space by 10,000 square feet.
