Survey work for Lytton Pomo development spurs angst among tribe’s Windsor neighbors

Survey poles placed in a pasture outside Windsor are some of the first tangible signs that a controversial tribal housing project proposed more than a decade ago could become reality.

The survey markers, which went up more than a week ago, delineate where a possible sewer plant and treatment ponds would be built to serve the 147 homes the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians want to build on the western edge of town.

“It sent a jolt through me,” said Cheryl Pabros, a Wellington Circle homeowner whose backyard abuts the meadow. “It’s shocking to wake up in the morning, have coffee, look out in the field and it’s all staked.”

“I’m not happy at all about it,” she said. “One of the selling points of our home is the beautiful open space and the view.”

Residents have differing reactions to the poles now dotting the grassland adjacent to the Deer Creek subdivision, depending on their attitude toward the Lytton Pomos’ plan to create a reservation on 124 acres they own on both sides of Windsor River Road.

Some suspect the tribe is sending a message to residents - that if the town doesn’t agree to extend sewer and water service, it can expect a treatment plant and wastewater ponds with the handling of toxic chemicals and the potential for odors close to neighbors’ backyard fences.

“Maybe it’s a scare tactic … something they use to try to gain leverage,” said Eric Wee, a staunch opponent of the tribal project who is against the tribe’s efforts to put the land into federal trust for a reservation and make it exempt from local land-use guidelines.

Tribal attorney Larry Stidham said the survey work is intended to give the tribal council an idea of where the reclaimed water ponds and the sewer plant will go if the tribe decides to build them. He denied that there is any ulterior motive.

“There’s no idea to send a statement or message,” he said.

“The tribe has an obligation to start planning this,” he said, explaining that the Pomos are proceeding along parallel paths - seeking town utilities, but also planning to build their own if necessary.

The tribe has a long-standing application with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to place the land into trust for its housing project. Legislation introduced earlier this year by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, would form an even larger Indian homeland - more than 500 acres - on the condition the tribe agrees not to build a casino.

Under a companion agreement struck with Sonoma County officials, the county agreed to support the trust application and not oppose the tribe’s plans to add a 200,000-case winery and resort hotel. Recently, in talks with neighboring residents, the tribe agreed to scale down the hotel from as many as 200 rooms to 135. The tribe also agreed not to build a casino under the agreement reached with the county.

The Lytton Pomos already own a casino in San Pablo that has funded their acquisition of land in Windsor and other parts of Sonoma County.

A long-held goal of the tribe, which had its Healdsburg-area rancheria dissolved by the federal government in 1958, has been to build new housing for its members, along with a cultural center, roundhouse and retreat.

For Roger Rude, a Deer Creek resident who supports extending town utilities to the tribal project, the survey poles make sense.

Rude said if the tribe can’t convince voters to extend Windsor water and sewer service, “they will be doing their own thing. They’re setting it up so folks can understand what their thing will be. It seems the smart thing to do.”

Rude, a retired sheriff’s lieutenant who worked with other tribes during his career, believes the tribe is trying to be a good neighbor despite the opposition to its project. He said it makes sense for the development to hook up to town utilities, the superior alternative identified in a federal environmental review.

The treatment plant would be subject to licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We have to plan down both roads. It’s just part of the construction and development process,” said Stidham, the tribal attorney.

The tribe needs voter approval for public sewer and water service, because most of their land lies outside Windsor’s urban growth boundary.

Stidham said there is not sufficient time to finish writing such a measure and collect the necessary voter signatures to place it on the June ballot. He said it could go on the November ballot if the tribe decides to pursue that route.

“The tribe continues to evaluate the situation,” he said.

Windsor officials have been in talks with the tribe for a number of years, negotiating terms for extending town sewer and water lines if voters approve that step.

Under a tentative agreement, if voters approve extension of utilities, the tribe would not only pay for upgrades to the town’s sewer and water system, but also build a swimming pool complex valued at up to $11 million at Keiser Park, and pay another $2.5 million that could be used for its ongoing operation.

But those plans ultimately hinge on the tribe getting approval to have its land taken into trust either through an act of Congress or approval by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Windsor and Sonoma County officials say it is only a matter of time before the tribe gets its reservation.

Opponents aren’t convinced.

Wee said the survey work “kind of crystalizes more than ever why this land can never go into trust and why Windsor and the Town Council has to start fighting to keep this out of trust.”

Pabros said the effort may be futile, but “it’s still worth a try, to keep letting Washington know we are here and not in favor of the land going into trust, and not in favor of the project.”

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter@clarkmas.