The Placer Casino

Sacramento Business Journal

THE ISSUE: An Indian casino proposed in Placer County runs into NIMBYism
OUR POSITION: The project should go ahead

The Native Americans of the United Auburn Indian Community live in squalor. They are 160 Maidu and Miwok Indians, loosely based around a reservation near Auburn, who are trying to better their lot by following a course set down by the Rumsey tribe that operates Cache Creek Casino in Yolo County.

They’ve tried to do everything right to build a 49-acre casino in an industrial area near Roseville, Rocklin, and Lincoln. But in an irony of historic proportions, they’ve run up against the not-in-my-backyard syndrome.

The tribes want to build on land that is five miles away from the nearest homes, churches, schools or stores. The main opposition came from the Roseville City Council, very late in the game. Last week, the council asked Placer County to delay an agreement with the tribes. To its credit, Placer County did not do so.

Roseville worries about crime, drug use and traffic. And it is responding to concerns that the project would be within the view of Del Webb Corp.’s new Sun City Lincoln Hills. The city wanted the county and the tribes to look at alternate sites. Mind you, this is an alternate site. The tribes wanted to build in Penryn, but dropped that in 1996 because it was too close to housing.

Delays now could cause the tribes to break off cooperative negotiations with local officials – negotiations which the tribes are probably not legally required to engage in, under federal tribal guidelines. And that would be a shame, for the tribes have bent over backward.

At the new site, the tribes have offered to comply fully with the California Environmental Quality Act, although they’re not legally required to. It would develop the land in compliance with Placer County’s zoning and design guidelines. It would provide a 9-acre buffer around the site. It would pay the county for fire, medical and wastewater services. It would use union labor to build the casino. It would hire 70 security guards and pay for extra patrol by five sheriff’s deputies. It would build a new road. It would build a new fire station and pay the county to staff it. It would contribute to a county open-space fund. And it would provide financial support to an outreach program dealing with problem gambling.

We may not like gambling, but the Auburn tribes have done everything by the book. And the book – federal law on tribal governance – allows this project. It can go forward with or without a memorandum of understanding with the county, and with or without the mitigation list.

This project would cost $50 million to build, backed partially by the Rumsey tribe. For Auburn tribes, it would provide $50 million to $70 million a year in revenue, and employment for 1,100.

Placer County’s supervisors are right to move ahead.

Copyright © 1999, Sacramento Business Journal