Santa Barbara County isn’t the only entity that filed a recent appeal to the Bureau of Indian Affairs January decision to place the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Camp 4 property into fee-to-trust with the federal government. The Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO) also filed and appeal along with at least three other community organizations, according to 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr.
“We’re certainly not in this alone,” Farr said. “It’s in the best interest of the county going forward.”
She said placing the nearly 1,400 acres of property into what is essentially reservation status would eat into the county’s tax base and take land-use control away from the county.
Farr also said the appeal filed by the county weighed in at around 900 pages. Included in those pages are a number of issues the county takes with the tribe’s application and reasoning behind the BIA’s decision, such as the arguments that Camp 4 isn’t contiguous with the current Chumash Reservation, the land is currently bound by Williamson Act Contract (and designated as agricultural land by the state), and the tribe never really explained their objective for all 1,400 acres of the land.
Farr said she understands the tribe’s objective to use Camp 4 for tribal housing development, but added that they could do that on a much smaller parcel.
“They wouldn’t need fee-to-trust on all of it,” she said.
The Sun contacted the Chumash for comment, but didn’t hear back before press time.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 5, 2015.