Windsor tribal housing project inches forward

The Windsor Town Council has taken the first step to allow the Lytton Band of Pomos access to town water and sewer service, paving the way for the tribe’s housing project to go ahead.

On a 5-0 vote Wednesday night, the Town Council quickly approved a revision to the water district code that will enable the tribe to eventually hook up to town utilities and build up to 147 housing units, a community center, retreat and spiritual roundhouse off Windsor River Road.

“This kind of clears the way to allow it to happen,” Town Councilman Steve Allen said Thursday.

City Manager Linda Kelly said the tribe, in exchange for getting town services, will pledge “an absolute permanent prohibition in perpetuity on the tribe building any casino or gaming in and around the vicinity of Windsor.”

The deal still would require approval by Windsor voters because the services are being stretched outside the town urban growth boundary to an adjacent unincorporated swath of land.

To sweeten the offer, the tribe is proposing a “public benefit” to the town, namely building a municipal swimming complex for Windsor at Keiser Park, a long-sought goal of the community.

The proposal, estimated to cost $7 million to $10 million by a tribal spokesman, calls for a 30-meter-long lap pool, a recreational pool, changing facility, community building and parking.

The Lyttons are planning to circulate petitions to gather sufficient signatures to ask for voter approval of the deal in a special election, aiming for June 2015.

But everything is ultimately contingent on approval from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to place 124 acres the tribe owns into federal trust, allowing the housing project to proceed independent of county zoning and land use guidelines.

Kevin Bearquiver, deputy regional BIA director in Sacramento, said Thursday the application is still under review and he could not predict when a decision might be forthcoming.

Once strongly opposed by the Town Council, County of Sonoma and adjacent residents, resistance to the housing plan has eroded with the realization it was likely to get eventual approval by federal regulators.

On Wednesday, no one spoke on the topic when it came before the Town Council, although the item was mostly technical, involving the revision of Windsor’s water code to allow extension of utilities to lands held in federal trust adjacent to the town’s boundary.

“I have not seen the reaction I thought I would see,” Allen said in an interview Thursday. “So far, people I’ve talked to about it seem to be fairly comfortable with the housing project. ”

The tribe’s willingness to stipulate it will not build a casino in Windsor also allayed fears that it intended to add a second gaming facility beyond the one it already operates in San Pablo.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs concluded there were no significant environmental impacts that could not be mitigated, including replacing about 1,700 trees that would be cut down to make way for the project.

Town officials and tribal representatives have been in negotiations for more than two years about the possibility of extending sewer and water service to the housing project, which was identified as the superior alternative in a lengthy environmental review.

The tribe early on said that it could go ahead even without town utilities, by drilling its own wells and building a small waste treatment plant. But area residents recoiled at the idea of a nearby sewer plant, as well as the tribe’s plan to build a four-acre pond to hold highly treated reclaimed wastewater on land it bought next to the Deer Creek subdivision.

In 2012, Windsor conducted a study at tribal expense to ascertain whether the town has the capacity to serve up to 600 residents on the tribal property. The conclusion was that it did, as long as the tribe kicked in funds - now revised to $6.5 million - for hook-up fees, additional maintenance and system improvements.

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