By Jessica Quandt – Staff Writer
Hollister – San Benito County will seek to establish a Regional
Planning Forum composed of representatives from surrounding
counties and cities to ask Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Bureau of
Indian Affairs to hold off making any decisions about the proposed
Miwok casino or the Sargent Ranch development.
By Jessica Quandt – Staff Writer
Hollister – San Benito County will seek to establish a Regional Planning Forum composed of representatives from surrounding counties and cities to ask Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to hold off making any decisions about the proposed Miwok casino or the Sargent Ranch development.
After Supervisor Pat Loe proposed a resolution to put together the forum, the board passed it unanimously.
“We need to give notice to the BIA and the governor that we feel there are regional impacts with any project this size. We as the county plus the regional agencies need to get involved in deciding land use,” Loe said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Even though the California Valley Miwok tribe is currently working on an economic impact study and has plans to conduct an environmental impact study, Loe said the regional forum will do a more in-depth investigation.
“The studies they’re (the Miwoks) doing on the federal level aren’t as specific as what we’re going to do,” Loe said. “We want to address issues of the floodplain and all of that, so we have to find out the difference between the state and federal requirements for these studies.”
Loe proposed the resolution in hopes that the cities of Hollister, San Juan Bautista, Salinas and Gilroy, and the counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey will join the forum. Although Monterey County Supervisors last week signed a resolution against a casino in San Benito or Santa Clara Counties, they have not yet committed to a regional forum, Loe said.
Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro said a casino meeting he held with representatives from the various cities and Santa Clara County had a similar goal, and that Gilroy was also hoping to put together a regional solution to the casino controversy.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage said he sees the benefit such a forum but doesn’t want to make a formal move until he has all the facts.
The pursuit of a Regional Planning Forum has only been officially approved by San Benito County so far, but it will probably include Loe, a representative from the City of Gilroy, San Benito County Schools Superintendent Tim Foley, Gage, the president of Gavilan College and a representative from the Gilroy School District, Loe said.
But several members of the anti-casino group Casinos Represent A Poor Solution (CRAPS) present in the audience said while the group supports the resolution, they would like to see it taken a step further.
“We at CRAPS think this is a step in the right direction, but we would like to see the resolution contain language outright opposing a casino in the region,” said CRAPS Chairman Steve Merrell.
CRAPS member Marilyn Hill said she would like to see the San Benito County board openly oppose any casino in the region.
But before San Benito County officially opposes any casinos, the Miwoks, who hope to build a casino off of Highway 25, want the supervisors to consider all the factors. California Valley Miwok Project Coordinator Gary Ramos said he supported the resolution as it was.
“We have always favored an open process that will enable us to work with county officials and the communities that will be most affected by our proposed resort in a coordinated fashion. This proposed resolution would help to encourage such a process,” Ramos stated in a letter to Loe dated Dec. 7.
Ramos also told the board it would be unjust and unwise to oppose the project before they had all the facts.
He added the tribe’s business model will kick back more money to San Benito County and the City of Hollister than other casinos in the state. Part of this business model includes giving back to San Benito County 10 percent of the money the casino is required to give to the state, and giving 10 percent of that to the city of Hollister, Ramos said.
Although he said it would be difficult to project actual revenues before the size and success of the project was, he said his tribe believes the 10 percent would come out to a “substantial” amount worthy of the county’s consideration.
“We support this resolution as it stands, but we encourage you to look at all of the evidence before you state an emphatic ‘no,'” Ramos said.
