The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians is moving forward with expansion plans for the Chumash Casino Resort with construction scheduled to start in October, despite concerns the project has raised within the county.
“The tribe has jurisdiction on the reservation,” said Vincent Armenta, the tribe’s chairman. “We go through the same exact process that the county does.”
Armenta said the tribe follows similar planning steps to Santa Barbara County, just on the reservation, and is accountable on both the federal and state levels for adhering to environmental laws and other rules and regulations. In August, the tribe released an environmental evaluation of the project and took comments from both the public and the county.
The tribe will be building a 12-story hotel tower with up to 215 new hotel rooms, installing a rooftop pool, renovating the existing hotel and casino, and adding a new parking structure. According to an email sent by 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr, the county submitted a 17-page letter of comments on the environmental evaluation. The tribe responded in writing to the county on Sept. 4, and announced on Sept. 23 that it had certified the environmental evaluation.
According to Farr’s email, the tribe responded by “essentially discounting most of the county’s concerns and stating what mitigations they would and would not incorporate and what amounts they would pay.”
Some of the concerns voiced at county Board of Supervisors meetings include the visible impact of the tower, as well as water use.
Armenta said there were some minor changes made to the plans after the tribe received public comment, adding that when the tribe was considering casino expansion plans, it looked at all the options that were available.
“The fact is, the tribe really doesn’t have a lot of land,” Armenta said. “We looked at every option aside from going vertical.”
He added that UC Santa Barbara’s dorms in Goleta are 11 stories. And as far as water concerns, Armenta said the tribe is using 60 percent less water than it was 10 years ago, and that even with the expansion, the tribe wouldn’t be using more than it did a decade prior.
This article appears in Oct 2-9, 2014.