Sonoma County officials defend Windsor deal with Lytton tribe

The Lytton Rancheria’s proposed housing development on the outskirts of Windsor was the topic of more heated debate Monday night, as Sonoma County officials defended an agreement they struck with the tribe in exchange for a number of concessions, including a pledge not to build a casino.

The meeting hosted by two county supervisors was meant to answer residents’ questions and help create a citizens’ advisory committee to work with the tribe in the future, but there was plenty of disagreement on how to proceed and a lot of criticism.

Eric Wee, a staunch opponent of the Lytton project, told the audience of more than 100 people packed into the Windsor Grange “You’ve been hoodwinked to this point. The county has thrown us under the bus.”

He said the idea that the county is protecting the citizens of Windsor from a casino is a “red herring” because a Windsor casino couldn’t compete with the large Graton Resort and Casino near Rohnert Park, closer to the Bay Area’s urban population.

“This is not about a homeland for the Lytton. This is about a huge development,” he said, noting the tribe could build a large winery, a 200-room hotel and cut down 1,500 blue oak trees under the agreement with the county.

“It is not inevitable. We can stop it,” he said to a burst of applause from the audience.

Supervisor James Gore, who represents Windsor and the north county, told the audience that “we’re trying to act as fair observers and information sharers.”

He said the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs has indicated a likelihood that the land will go into trust for the tribe, creating a reservation.

The Lytton tribe, which owns the San Pablo Casino in the East Bay, has steadily acquired land near Windsor and has a long-standing application with the federal government to build 147 homes and a retreat for tribal members on 124 acres it owns off Windsor River Road.

“There is a real risk by the end of the year, as that (Obama) administration leaves, the BIA will approve that,” county counsel Bruce Goldstein said.

The county last year agreed to allow the tribe to expand its potential reservation and build as many as 360 homes, a hotel and winery on the condition it not build a casino for 22 years.

In addition, the county obtained a number of other concessions from the tribe, such as the payment of impact fees to support public services; compliance with fire and building codes; mitigating the traffic impacts and the loss of oak trees; and a waiver of tribal sovereign immunity to enforce the agreement.

The county and the tribe also asked Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, to introduce legislation creating the reservation through a congressional act as opposed to an administrative action by the BIA. Local officials feared the agency might reject some of the provisions in the county-tribal agreement.

Huffman’s bill, HR 2538, proposes to place 511 acres that the tribe owns into federal trust, creating a patchwork of Indian lands generally southwest of Windsor’s town limits - but with no chance of a casino.

“The bill will insulate our agreement from interference with the BIA,” Goldstein told the audience Monday.

“Historically, the BIA doesn’t like ‘no gaming,’” Huffman said in an interview Monday. “They believe it encroaches on tribal sovereign rights.”

Huffman said his bill, which will be considered by the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, will be amended to strengthen provisions against gaming. If approved, it would move forward for a vote on the House floor before going to the Senate, a process with an uncertain outcome and timeline.

Huffman said his amendment will prohibit the Lytton tribe from ever building a casino north of Highway 12, and prohibit a casino south of that line for 22 years.

Opponents are not convinced the tribe would get the land into trust without Huffman’s help, citing legal issues that have been raised about whether the tribe was under federal jurisdiction prior to 1934, the standard cited in a Supreme Court decision.

But Huffman said there is no indication that the BIA is considering rejecting the Lyttons’ application, especially given that the Obama administration wants to create another 200,000 acres of Indian lands.

In fact, he said, based on his recent correspondence with the agency, “they would have every intent of granting the application.”

“I do feel a sense of urgency for this, given the fact the Obama administration is winding down and the indication if Congress can’t get this done, the BIA will,” Huffman said.

That would be “a bad thing” because it would not preclude a casino like his legislation would, Huffman added.

Opponents of the Lytton project have focused on the traffic it will generate, the loss of agricultural land and trees at the site, the demand on water supplies and the project’s conflict with county and town general plans that call for less dense development on the property.

The tribe has shown a willingness to scale back its winery and cut back the number of potential hotel rooms from 200 to 130, according to Gore, but on the condition it not have to pay the county any bed taxes.

Supervisor David Rabbitt said that would be unfair to other hotels and other tribes in the county, like the Graton tribe, which has agreed to pay bed tax fees to the county.

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