A view of a site under consideration for a Wilton Rancheria casino. Photo from Wilton EIS
The Wilton Rancheria of California is still waiting on the Bureau of Indian Affairs to advance its casino proposal. The BIA published a scoping report for the environmental impact statement in February 2014. The tribe had hoped for a draft report this January but now expects it might come this summer. “The tribe is eager for the public hearing and the opportunity for public comments that will follow once the BIA makes the draft EIS available to the public,” Rose Weckenmann, the tribe's attorney, said at a city council meeting in Galt, The Lodi News-Sentinel reported.
This figure shows the preferred plan for the casino site. Image from Wilton EIS
The tribe hopes to build a casino on a 282-acre site outside of Galt. The project is still in the early stages so there aren't concrete details about the facility. The tribe's federal recognition was reaffirmed in 2009. Presumably, that makes the tribe eligible for an exception in Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that applies to newly recognized tribes. Get the Story:
Planned casino is close to Galt’s sphere of influence (The Lodi News-Sentinel 2/27) Federal Register Notice:
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Wilton Rancheria Fee-to-Trust and Casino Project, Sacramento County, California (December 4, 2013)
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