California town worries Indian casino will dwarf it
Some
residents are criticizing the Cloverdale Rancheria Indian Tribe’s proposal to
build a hotel-casino on a 79-acre tract of tribal land near Cloverdale in California’s Sonoma
County.
Project
details indicate it will have several buildings totaling 596,000 square feet
with parking for 3,400 cars. The casino area will include 2,000 slot machines
and 45 gaming tables. Other features include a 244-room hotel, a 984-seat
convention center, a 1,300-seat entertainment center and almost 1,000
restaurant seats.
“The size is unbelievable,” Cloverdale City
Councilman Gus Wolter told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. “It’s almost bigger
than the whole town of Cloverdale,
and that would change the demographic of our town forever. It would devastate
us. We’d lose our values as a small town.”
The Cloverdale Rancheria
has declined comment on these concerns but indicated that the casino proposed
would help lift the tribe’s 414 members from poverty. The tribe has partnered
with the Sealaska tribe of Alaska
to finance and manage the casino. But they note that before the casino can be
built, the project must get several state and federal approvals and pass an
environmental review.
Sonoma County casino plan
January 1, 2009
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