By Terri Harber - Lincoln News Messenger
Someone is challenging the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City of Lincoln and the United Auburn Indian Community for sewer service to the planned casino at Industrial Avenue and Athens Road.
Diamond Creek Partners, Ltd. And Stephen Des Jardins filed papers in Placer County Superior Court that challenge the validity of the MOU.
The filer asserts that the city “did no independent evaluation of the environmental consequences of extending sewer service to the undeveloped Athens Avenue parcel.”
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review by the BIA and the environmental review by the county and the tribe are still incomplete.
The city said that environmental documentation for the MOU was derived from the Environmental Impact Reports for expansion of its wastewater treatment plant, which will be situated near the site proposed for the casino. It also said that the county EIR will be covering similar ground.
Des Jardins said that he and Diamond Creek Partners, however, believe that the city is subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because providing the sewer service has “obvious significant growth-inducing impacts for the region.”
This makes the city a “catalyst for future development of the undeveloped 49-acre parcel,” the document states.
The filer also states that because the city has chosen to provide this sewer service outside its borders that it is the lead agency under CEQA, which would require the filing of CEQA documents before it had approved of the MOU. An EIR completed by the county won’t be sufficient because “Placer County has no discretionary decision to make on the Indian Community’s proposed casino. Therefore Placer County does not have to comply with CEQA.” The document also concludes.
Some of the environmental impacts listed in the challenge document are form the Initial Study conducted by Placer County, such as violation of air quality standards, increases in existing noise levels, greater need for various governmental services and a potential degradation of the area’s “unique ethnic cultural value” and “quality of the environment, substantially reduce the habitat of a fish or a wildlife species, etc.”
“No comment,” said William Malinen, city manager, of the matter. “The city doesn’t believe it’s appropriate to discuss legal matters.” The city will receive more than $1 million for the sewer service, as well as compensation for an array of other public projects if the casino is built.
Des Jardins, along with being a developer, is a member of “Citizens for Safer Communities,” one of the groups that tried to stop the council from approving of the MOU.
The MOU was narrowly approved of by the council in August and the tribe approved of it later. A passage contained in the MOU states that “the city doesn’t support gambling on any tribe’s land in Placer Conty.”
When it voted against forging a MOU with the tribe back in 1999, Lincoln was the first South Placer community to oppose the casino.
© 2000 Lincoln News Messenger
