March 21, 2001 - Citizen opposition surrounds Shingle Springs Rancheria

By CANDACE CRANE Staff writer

Things are not all OK in Shingle Springs these days.

As the community surrounding the proposed 990,000-square-foot Rancheria casino project, it has long been a hotbed of opposition to the band's plans. And as the project moves forward through the environmental documentation and public comment phases, the opposition also continues to move, soliciting support and building strategies.

Many individual residents oppose the casino. But the most organized players in the limelight consist of three groups. The Grassy Run Homeowners Association, represented by Penny LeDoux, has a long history of dealing with the tribe due to the fact that the Grassy Run residents are next-door neighbors and own the only road providing access to the rancheria.

Shingle Springs Neighbors for Quality Living, headed by Brad Pearson, is a year-old group interested in all land-use issues in Shingle Springs. Local attorney Ron Dosh organized Voices for Rural Living specifically to oppose the casino.

The groups' positions run the spectrum from Grassy Run's, which has mellowed over the years, to that of Voices, which plans to sue in federal court if the casino even gets close to happening. Although the Neighbors' interests are wider than the casino, it is a close ally of Voices, and Dosh focuses like a laser beam on what he sees as the casino's downsides.

LeDoux likens Grassy Run's situation to standing on the center line of a freeway. ³When all is said and done, we and the tribe are still going to be neighbors. We don't want to end up in a 20-year war over this, and the only way to avoid it is to come up with something everyone is able to agree on. We've been through the emotion and are trying hard now to be realistic about what needs to be done and get everybody to sit down and figure out how to do it.²

LeDoux said another reason her group is not expressing a strong position is because ³we understand what the law is. Do we need a casino, no, but we're not going to throw a hissy fit. It won't change an act of Congress.² She said she supports the tribe's desire for financial independence but doesn't think the casino is good for the county.

Still, since the tribe has the right to have one and has chosen that route, there are issues she would like to see addressed, the biggest being the location. ³It's problematical for me when a tribe can put something commercial inside an established residential neighborhood,² she said. ³I'm a strong believer in equal rights and that's not equal.²

She said the tribe knows they're going to need additional property and questions whether the parcel on the south side of Highway 50, which they plan to use for homes, wouldn't be a better location for the casino complex. ³We're not dumping problems in others' backyards,² she said, ³but there needs to be more serious thought into which location makes more sense for commercial development. I'm not pretending to have answers, but we need to have everybody looking at the issue.²

She also cautioned those making agreements with the tribe. ³Local governments need to have agreements signed off by the secretary of the interior or the enforcement capability isn't there,² she said. She cited the Indian casino in Auburn as a good model to follow.

Finally, she recommended setting up a committee that includes the tribe, the county and community groups to meet on a regular basis and deal with problems that come up. ³This way you get them handled before they become huge,² she said. According to LeDoux, the Cache Creek tribe has done this successfully.

She said the new tribal chairman, Nick Fonseca, supports such dialog. ³His willingness to ask questions, learn and uncover mutual ground is one of his biggest strengths,² she said. ³And when you don't walk into a conversation with your mind made up, things can work out.² She expects to see some real and positive changes with Fonseca in the chairman's seat.

For Pearson and the Neighbors, the basic problem with the casino is that it's not subject to the county's long-range planning process because the tribe is a separate nation. That fact raises a whole set of issues.

For one thing, it means the public doesn't have involvement in the earliest stages of decision making, which is where Pearson said it should be. ³When there's going to be a freeway interchange, for example, people know about it 10 years beforehand. In this case, the rancheria hired their own engineers. SACOG (Sacramento Area Council of Governments) was not involved.²

Pearson said the band's separate-nation status allows them to make decisions and commitments before soliciting public comment. ³That's not the way it should be,² said Pearson. ³The interchange shouldn't even exist at this stage, before the public has the information and the county looks at it from a regional planning perspective, because there's no way the casino project will be an island.²

Pearson predicted the size of the complex means it will affect a major portion of the Western Slope, put pressures on other land uses and cause additional ripple effects. ³This is not a small land-use project,² he said. ³We're talking about the single biggest commercial venture in the county.²

Citing data in the project's environmental assessment, Pearson noted that the four largest casinos in South Lake Tahoe produced $309 million revenue in 1998, the last year of records. ³This one casino will generate 60 percent of Stateline and 20 percent of Reno-Sparks,² he said. ³Even half that size is a massive project.²

He explained how the size causes ripples. ³Take water, for example. There is a finite supply. Most commercial and industrial projects are not heavy water users, but the nature of the casino means it will be.² He claimed it could cause the county to exceed capacity.

Going one step further, he said, ³If the county is proceeding through the General Plan process, allocating the water supply to housing and commercial as we go and all of a sudden we come up with an anomaly that doesn't appear on any master plan, then needed water isn't available for the projects we've already planned.²

The same scenario results when considering traffic, according to Pearson. ³Highway 50 can only take so much and then the level of service will degrade and that will be felt throughout the county,² he said. ³The more cars, the worse the air will get, and we are already in a non-attainment area.² He said every project coming along has to be gauged according to its contribution to air pollution, and a project like the casino will contribute a major amount. ³That makes it much more difficult for other projects.²

Bottom line, Pearson and his group feel, the casino takes capacity away from other things county residents consider badly needed and more integral to the community, such as Wal-Mart, housing and local commercial development. ³The casino needs to be gauged against the county's other needs,² Pearson said, ³and we usually do this in the general planning process. We equivalate between uses. But the casino is not part of the county's long-range planning, and this is a major flaw.²

Speaking for the Voices for Rural Living that has promised to sue to stop the casino, Dosh said his group, which he said has 700 members, perceives the casino as a quality-of-life issue. ³The more we learn, the worse it gets,² he said.

Characterizing his group as a watchdog whose job it is to ³gather information and attempt to verify the facts,² Dosh has difficulty with those who are promoting the casino. ³They read the backers' statements and don't look further,² he said. ³People need to look further into things.²

The wastewater treatment plant described in the environmental report is a good example, according to Dosh. ³There's going to be 90,000 gallons of effluent per day. Will the substructure of the ground support that?²

He said the subsurface at the rancheria allows water to percolate very quickly, which causes him to question whether the contaminants will be taken out or move down into the aquifer and end up someplace else.

Also, the ground becomes seasonally saturated, Dosh said, raising a concern he shares with the county Board of Supervisors: Will the effluent appear on the surface of the soil? He said the Regional Water Quality Control Board is asking questions.

Dosh predicts that taxpayers, local businesses and youth will all be negatively affected by the casino. Gamblers will empty out their bank accounts and end up becoming general relief burdens to the county. ³We'd also better be prepared for parolees from Stockton and Sacramento,² he said. Ponderosa High School is only one highway exit away from the casino, and Dosh is also concerned that high schoolers, who can sign themselves out of school, will do so and go gamble. Legally, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 prohibits gaming by people under 21.

Casino traffic on the county's feeder roads - Dosh said not everyone will use Highway 50 - will create a safety issue for residents, according to Dosh. He fingered roads such as Cameron Park Drive, Cambridge Drive, Bass Lake Road and Highway 49 as popular arrival and departure routes.

Dosh sees the developers' claim of boosting local businesses as a red herring. ³The backers are talking about Œcannibalizing' $50 million from South Lake Tahoe,² he said. ³There are businesses here that are going to be hurt by the casino's hotel and restaurants. It's not going to be a boon for the county's businesses.²

Even the night sky Dosh said most residents moved here to enjoy will be harmed. ³I don't care if they do facing on the lighting,² he said. ³It's still going to put light pollution into the night sky.²

Bottom line, he said, this project is not what the IGRA had in mind when it gave Native Americans the right to develop and operate casinos. ³My wife and I have stopped at casinos on the reservations in the Southwest where there are no feeder roads and nothing else around,² he said. ³This is exactly what the IGRA was meant for. It wasn't designed to throw $990 million into the middle of a residential area.²

He was quick to say his group's opposition has nothing to do with the fact that the casino is an Indian project. ³Whether it's short, fat lawyers or purple people eaters building it, we're opposed. It's detrimental to the community.²

He said he feels badly there is no middle ground to be reached on the issue. ³I wish it were different,² he said, shaking his head. ³I wish there was a way for the tribe to become economically self-sufficient without sacrificing the community.²

Candace Crane can be reached at ccrane@mtdemocrat.net.