Another chance for public comment on Koi Nation casino project near Windsor

Public reaction to a proposed Koi Nation resort-casino near Windsor has been vehement ever since the Pomo band announced they had purchased 68.6 acres of vineyard land in the Shiloh area of unincorporated Sonoma County in September 2021.

And the debate continues.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, a branch of the U.S. Department of the Interior that regulates tribal gaming (among other interests), announced on March 8 its intent to require an environmental impact statement for the project, opening another 30-day window for public comment.

“The Koi are supportive, in the sense that people have strong feelings both positive and negative,” said Sam Singer, a spokesperson for the tribe, whose ancestral roots in the vicinity of Clear Lake. “This gives an extra opportunity for the public to weigh in. And the tribe is fully in support of that.”

Last fall, the BIA presented an environmental assessment of the Shiloh site. That document, the bureau said through a media representative, is intended to be a concise report that helps determine whether a “finding of no significant impacts” is supported, or if a more detailed environmental impact statement is necessary.

After the previous 60-day comment period, highlighted by the submission of more than 300 written comments and a Zoom-based public hearing that drew dozens of speakers, the BIA decided more analysis is in order.

“An environmental impact statement is intended to provide a full and fair discussion of significant environmental impacts and shall inform decision makers and the public of reasonable alternatives that would avoid or minimize adverse impacts or enhance the quality of the human environment,” the BIA representative wrote.

Federal criteria require regulators to consider local impacts and community sentiment in making their final decision.

In Sonoma County, that sentiment has largely lined up against the Koi. Shiloh residents cite a range of issues, many of them related to traffic, noise, crime, water use, visual impacts and, most central, safety concerns during wildfire evacuations.

“If you aren’t moved by water, traffic, schools, churches, wildlife, the creek, maybe you would be moved by death,” Heidi Jacquin, who lost her home in the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and now lives in Shiloh Estates, told the BIA at the September hearing. “People burning to death in their homes, burning to death in their cars.”

Most of those who spoke in favor of the casino that night were members of the Northern California Carpenters Union. The union signed an agreement with the Koi in February 2022 ensuring any general contractor selected for the project will employ represented labor.

Local tribes are split on the matter.

The most economically powerful of those, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria — who operate Graton Resort and Casino near Rohnert Park — submitted a letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors opposing the Koi project in September 2021. The Dry Creek Rancheria, Cloverdale Rancheria and Kashia Band of Pomo Indians sent similar letters, accusing the Koi of “reservation shopping” outside their ancestral lands.

Greg Sarris, tribal chairman of Graton Rancheria, said during the September public hearing that the 49 miles separating the Koi’s traditional home and their Shiloh casino site would be the greatest distance, by far, for lands ever taken into trust by the Department of the Interior for an Indian gaming operation.

The first of Sonoma County’s two tribal casinos, River Rock, opened near Geyserville in 2002. It is situated 13 miles north of the Koi site.

Graton Resort and Casino, the Bay Area’s largest gambling destination, where work is underway to nearly double the size of the gaming floor and hotel space, opened in 2013. It stands about 11 miles south of the Koi site.

Koi leaders Dino and Darin Beltran, who are brothers, have argued their tribe was pushed off their land by white farmers and ranchers in the 1800s, confined to an unlivable patch of land in Lake County by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and ultimately forced even from that rancheria.

The Koi settled in Sonoma County not by choice, the Beltrans say, but out of necessity.

Two months ago, Koi leadership announced support from a coalition of 18 California tribes, including Pomo bands such as Scotts Valley, Habematolel of Upper Lake, Hopland, Big Valley and Sherwood Valley.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution against the project in April 2022. The Windsor Town Council, state Sen. Mike McGuire, Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, Sen. Alex Padilla and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, before her death, all came out in opposition.

But the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, will have final say.

Acorn Environmental, based in El Dorado Hills, has been contracted to prepare the environmental impact statement. The Koi Nation must cover the cost, but the Department of the Interior will supervise the work and independently evaluate the document and be responsible for its accuracy, scope and contents, the BIA representative said.

Acorn also prepared the Koi’s environmental assessment.

That report presented four alternatives for the Shiloh parcel, ranging from a “no action” option that would preserve the vineyards and oak trees currently on the property, to the big-ticket option favored by the Koi.

The latter calls for a 540,000-square-foot casino with 2,750 gaming machines, five restaurants, five bars, a coffee shop, a 2,800-seat event center and two ballrooms, plus an adjacent 400-room hotel and spa.

The BIA could expand the range of alternatives based on comments received during the scoping process, as noted in the bureau’s recent notice of intent.

This public comment period will close April 7.

The BIA says it is inviting the public to identify “potential issues, concerns, and alternatives to be considered in the (environmental impact statement) which have not previously been raised,” according to the notice.

Judging by earlier stages of this process, the BIA will hear many opinions, both pro and con, that have been raised repeatedly since the Koi tribe shocked Shiloh neighbors in first announcing their land purchase.

“All comments will be included in the administrative record,” the representative confirmed.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.