Opinion: Fears of a gaming expansion with land-into-trust

Thursday, March 29, 2012  

"Another expansion of Northern California's Cache Creek Casino is on the horizon. The Yocha De He Wintun tribe has applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to annex 853 acres of their Capay Valley fee title farmland property into trust lands so as to build homes for their tribal members.

Two other such annexations for tribal housing over the past 20 years have resulted in the establishment of, at first, a casino and hotel and then the Yocha De He Golf Course. Neighbors worry that the latest request for annexation of 853 acres into trust status for 'tribal housing' would result in massive commercial development and further urbanization of this valley of family farms.

Trust status creates a privileged status to this developer. More importantly, trust status conveys a lack of legal accountability and effectively eliminates the rights of redress for neighbors and other impacted citizens."

Get the Story:
Vicki Murphy: Third casino expansion raises still more concerns (The Woodland Daily Democrat 3/28)