Windsor wants Lytton tribe to gather signatures for vote

Windsor voters are likely to get a chance next year to decide whether to extend water and sewer service to an Indian tribe’s proposed housing project just outside town boundaries, but it won’t be placed on the ballot by the Town Council.

The council Wednesday decided that it is better for the Lytton Band of Pomos to gather the needed signatures to place the issue on the ballot, a less cumbersome process than doing it through the Town Council, which would require an environmental review of uncertain duration and outcome.

“I just see it as a morass,” Town Councilman Sam Salmon said of having the council take the initiative of placing it on the ballot. “I see it as fertile ground for litigation.”

Councilwoman Debora Fudge agreed with one speaker who said “it is more democratic” for the tribe to place it on the ballot, adding that “it consumes a lot of time if the town does it.”

The proposal by the Lytton tribe to build a housing project on the western outskirts of town has engendered increasing opposition in Windsor along with the tribe’s ever-increasing amount of land that it has proposed to take into federal trust - the equivalent of creating a reservation.

Councilman Dominic Foppoli said, “It’s the most contentious time in our young town’s history” and admitted he lost some sleep prior to Wednesday’s meeting agonizing over the best course of action on how to proceed with the ballot issue.

The Lytton Pomos are proposing to build a municipal swimming center at Keiser Park in exchange for obtaining sewer and possibly water service from Windsor for their 147-unit tribal housing project.

Connecting to the town’s utilities was identified in a federal environmental study as a superior alternative to the tribe drilling wells and building its own small treatment plant.

But extending utilities outside town limits requires voter approval, as stipulated in the Urban Growth Boundary initiative that was adopted by the Windsor electorate in 1998.

The issue at times has pitted neighbor against neighbor.

“It isn’t a question of whether the land goes into trust and becomes sovereign,” Wellington Circle resident Roger Rude said of the issue that voters will decide. Instead, he said, it will be about sharing utilities, the environmentally right thing to do.

But others questioned why Windsor was willing to share its water supply during a drought in which residents constantly are reminded to conserve.

“It seems hysterical to me that we are having these discussions to extend water and sewer that are in scarce demand,” said Wellington Circle resident Steve Pabros.

At a meeting with Windsor and county officials last week, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, suggested that it would be better to have the town place the issue on the ballot, because it would be more transparent, by requiring an environmental review with an ability for the public to comment, according to Mayor Bruce Okrepkie.

At Wednesday night’s meeting attended by about 70 people, Okrepkie noted that more speakers wanted the tribe to collect the needed signatures than have the Town Council place it before voters, even though they have differing opinions on whether the tribe’s project can be halted.

Okrepkie said he was concerned about the time it would take and the burden on town staff to go through an environmental review even thought it might be limited in scope on just sewer and water issues.

Let the tribe place it on the ballot, he said, then “do a public vote and let the chips fall where they may.”

There was some uncertainty over how many signatures the tribe needs to collect.

The town clerk said 15 percent of registered voters, or just over 1,960 signatures.

But a Sonoma County elections department official said that to get something placed on the ballot for a regularly scheduled election, including June or November 2016, would require collecting 1,309 signatures in Windsor - or 10 percent of registered voters. She said 15 percent is required only for a special election.

Citizens for Windsor, the most ardent opponents of the tribal project, said on its website that it appears the Lyttons cannot get the necessary signatures, so the Town Council is doing it for them.

“That’s absolutely false,” tribal spokesman Larry Stidham said Wednesday, explaining that the tribe hasn’t made any attempt to collect signatures.

“It’s difficult to gauge whether we could get signatures or not. We haven’t started,” he said.

Following the council’s decision Wednesday night, he said it was uncertain how soon the tribe would formally initiate a process to get the measure before voters.

Eric Wee, a staunch opponent of the Lytton project, said the town should be placing an advisory measure on the ballot asking voters whether they approve of having the land taken into trust, which he said could influence the decision of policymakers in Washington, D.C.

The tribe, which owns the lucrative San Pablo Lytton Casino in the East Bay, has a long-pending application with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to have the land near Windsor taken into trust. Congressman Huffman also has pending legislation that would place the land into trust but with a guarantee that no casino would be built.

Opposition has grown dramatically to the Lyttons’ plans in Windsor, stoked by the tribe’s increasing amount of land that it proposes to make a homeland.

After years of planning to take only 124 acres into federal trust along Windsor River Road, the county last spring agreed not to oppose the taking of as much as 1,300 acres into trust and also allowing - subject to federal environmental review - a 200-room hotel and a 200,000-case winery off Starr or Eastside roads.

And the number of homes the tribe could build grew to more than 360.

In exchange, the tribe agreed not to build a casino for the 22 years of the contract.

To ensure there would never be a casino built, Huffman introduced a bill shortly afterward that allowed the tribe to take more than 500 acres into trust with a stipulation of no gaming on the land.

As part of obtaining town sewer and water service, the tribe is proposing to build a $9 million to $11 million aquatic complex.

A pool is something the town has sought for years. But after devising a master plan for a facility in 2007, the Town Council shelved the project, citing concerns over the deficit projected in its operation.

Parks and recreation officials said the gap between revenues and potential expenses of an aquatic center previously was estimated at $217,000 annually.

The tribe, however, is proposing to give the town $2.5 million, which could be applied to ongoing maintenance and operations for the pool.

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