There wasn’t an empty seat in the house. Even finding a few feet of space against the wall of the Veterans Memorial Building was a chore. For hours, a standing room-only crowd of local residents packed the musty hall in Solvang on Aug. 26—a Friday night, no less—to hear why they should do everything in their power to block a fee-to-trust land deal by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
“This is an issue about money, and it comes at the expense of your community,” said Fred Steck, the town hall meeting’s moderator. “The tribe is trying to coerce political leaders into land-to-trust. One can only conjecture expanded gaming is the purpose.”
Sponsored by watchdog groups the Santa Ynez Valley Concerned Citizens, Women’s Environmental Watch, Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO), and the Preservation of Santa Ynez (POSY), the meeting featured a panel of speakers who urged the audience to take a stand against what they called a “bait and switch” land grab.
“Get organized. Call your congressional office. Tell them it’s awful,” said Don Mitchell, an attorney and expert on federal Indian law. “You need to make this a political issue with respect to elected officials.”
The debate is over 1,400 acres at the intersection of Highway 154 and Highway 246 known as “Camp 4,” land the Chumash tribe purchased from Fess Parker Enterprises in 2010 for a reported $40 million. Years before his death, Parker agreed to sell 51 percent of the site to the tribe, and discussions about building a resort, golf course, and luxury homes there followed, until strong opposition from locals put an end to the plans.
This time, the tribe is seeking a fee-to-trust deal for the land, in which the property would be deeded over to the federal government. In exchange, the feds would recognize the land as a sovereign nation, exempt from state and local taxes and environmental laws.
Though the tribe has said it intends to annex the property into the reservation for 143 additional single-family homes, opponents of the deal say the process is the first step to building another casino in the valley.
Attorney Mark Rochefort, who on behalf of POLO has successfully fought a similar deal involving about seven acres near the Chumash Casino Resort, believes the tribe wants another casino in the area. Once the land goes fee-to-trust, he said, all bets are off.
“The federal government owns it for the tribe, so the tribe sets up their own laws, their own regulations to govern that property,” Rochefort said. “It’s not subject to the community plan, the master plan in the North County that you all worked so hard for. … All the environmental issues, all the land use issues, all those things that you and I live with when we own property … none of that applies.”
Many town hall attendees feared the deal would be the first step to expanding Indian gaming in their community. Solvang resident Elaine Dreyfuss said she was “very concerned” about the potential for increased gambling, traffic, and crime.
“They’ve said they’re only going to build homes, but as soon as they get the fee-to-trust, they can do whatever they want, and they don’t even have to follow our building codes in any way,” Dreyfuss said. “They don’t have to have inspections by building and safety. They don’t have to follow any of the rules the rest of us have to follow.”
Dreyfuss drew comparisons to the county’s recent decision to drop opposition to expanded alcohol sales at the Chumash Casino and said if local elected officials didn’t listen to the residents then, chances are slim they’ll listen now. “I’m not happy that the Board of Supervisors is even considering signing this bogus agreement that the tribe is presenting,” she said. “If the board comes out in support of them going fee-to-trust, we will get no benefit of anything from those 1,400 acres. Taxes, money to go toward our schools, we will get none of it.”
None of the five Santa Barbara County supervisors attended the town hall meeting, a point of contention for many of those present.
“Where are the supervisors? Where are our elected officials?” questioned one unidentified woman in the hall foyer.
“They’re getting paid off by the Chumash,” another chimed in angrily.
No representatives for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians appeared for the meeting either. The Sun’s calls to the tribe for comment were not returned.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior typically make the fee-to-trust determination. Under the BIA process, the governor and the county’s board of supervisors do have input in the decision, though they don’t have the power to veto it.
In this case, opponents claim the tribe is trying to bypass the BIA channels by taking the issue to the political realm. Last December, Chumash tribal leaders approached Rep. Elton Gallegly, asking him to introduce legislation in Congress allowing the tribe to turn the land over to fee-to-trust. Gallegly told the tribe in March he needed support from county supervisors before making a decision.
The political turn of events actually works to the Santa Ynez community’s advantage, according to Rochefort.
“Here we had several hundred people [at the town hall], and if all of them mobilize and make their wishes known to their elected officials, it does work,” he said.
“What next happens next, I don’t know, because our political process always goes by its own agenda,” he said. “But the more these people speak out, the more they will control this process.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas can be contacted at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 1-8, 2011.
