Pinoleville Pomo Nation Announces Plans for Casino

The Pinoleville Pomo Nation have had plans to build a casino just north of the city of Ukiah for many, many years and yesterday they finally made it official. The tribe has completed a gaming compact with the governor which will allow them, if passed through congress and signed off by Interior, to install 900 Nevada-style slot machines in exchange for giving the state 15 percent of the net revenue.

Although the plans for a new casino have long been rumored, it caught local officials by surprise.

Leona Williams, chairwoman of the tribe admitted yesterday that the tribe had been planning the casino for many years but noted that they are still just in the planning stages and that the tribe has not found financial backers nor decided where it will build the casino.

The tribe’s 99-acre Rancheria sits right along Highway 101 about a mile north of Ukiah but most of the 240-members live elsewhere.

Following standard compact stipulations these days, the tribe must prepare an environmental impact report and negotiate with the county on how it will mitigate off-reservation impacts, but local officials said impact reports required of tribes are not as comprehensive or binding as those required for non-tribal developments.

There are two other casinos nearby and officials are asking how viable it would be to build a third, but a spokesman for the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians who own one of the two existing facilities said he didn’t think another one would hurt them saying, “competition is good”.

But he also noted that having a compact does not automatically ensure that the Pinoleville will be able to build their casino saying that, “It’s still a long road to hoe.”

Source:
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090323/ARTICLES/903239912/1350?Title=Third-casino-planned-for-Ukiah-Valley