Draft environmental statement finds no big Cowlitz Casino hangup
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11:47 PM PDT
By The Daily News and The Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleVANCOUVER --- An environmental review of plans for a $510 million Cowlitz tribal casino, hotel and resort near La Center has found no big hangup, The Columbian reported.
In articles Sunday and Monday, the newspaper reported that the administrative draft of a final environmental impact statement dismissed most concerns by opponents of the project, including crime, traffic, social unrest and environmental degradation, as "less than significant."
Other potentially negative effects from what would be the closest tribal casino to the Portland metropolitan area could be adequately mitigated or reduced through tribal efforts, according to the study done by Analytical Environmental Services of Sacramento, Calif.
The report estimates that the casino would generate $415 million annually in gambling revenue and employ 3,151 people earning an average of $28,000 a year, including tips, for a total annual payroll of $88.1 million.
Cowlitz County Commissioner Kathleen Johnson on Tuesday said she had received the report, but had not entirely reviewed it yet.
Still, of the tribe, she said, "They're doing exactly what I thought they would do. There's been no ducking of responsibility."
Johnson said she is "not for expanded gambling," but she had not yet made up her mind about the proposed casino.
"There's too many issues," she said.
Jim Bakunowicz, who owns the Cadillac Ranch Casino, a Longview card room, said he opposes the proposed casino because "any time you do something on that magnitude where the playing field becomes unlevel, it's a detriment to the smaller guy."
Bakunowicz pointed out that the Cowlitz casino will provide more varieties of gambling, including slots, and will allow far larger bets.
He compared the situation to a Wal-Mart coming into a small down and wiping out "mom and pop" businesses.
The report, he said, is "a big stepping stone" for the Cowlitz, but he added that its conclusions don't make the proposed casino a "done deal."
"Anything can happen," Bakunowicz said.
The administrative draft the newspaper obtained has not been released by federal officials, who plan to wait until a final environmental impact statement is ready.
Lawyers don't expect the federal government to decide whether to take the 152-acre site into trust as the tribe's initial reservation, a step required for the project to proceed, before early next year.
The proposed 134,150-square-foot casino resort would be built along Interstate 5 two miles west of La Center, population about 1,900, where four non-tribal cardrooms are the biggest employers, taxpayers and utility customers. Last year the town's 10 percent gambling tax produced $3.3 million in revenue, 62 percent of the town's $5.3 million total.
According to a town study that the consultants didn't dispute, two-thirds of the gambling revenue could be lost, but those funds have long been placed mainly in a reserve fund that has grown to $18 million or are being spent on road and other construction projects rather than on day-to-day services, the study found.
Even with diminished cardroom operations, the town would get about $1.6 million a year in gambling revenue, almost twice the $823,000 from gambling that was used to support basic services in 2005, according to the review.
"As cardroom revenue would be in excess of the amount currently diverted to the city's general fund, this impact is considered less than significant," the consultants wrote. "No mitigation is required."
The immediate response from local officials was muted.
"I wish I were surprised, but I'm not," town council member Dale Smith said. "Basically what it says is, 'You have enough money. We can take some of it."'
Mayor James T. Irish said the draft was received only last week and was still under review.
"At the first blush, that (lack of compensation for lost gambling revenue) wouldn't be acceptable," Irish said, "but we have to look at it in detail."
In February 2006, the Cowlitz Tribe offered to guarantee that municipal gambling revenues would not dip below $3 million annually for 10 years and to make up any difference if it did.
"We have offered mitigation. The city has refused to negotiate," said Stephen W. Horenstein, a lawyer representing the development partnership between Cowlitz member David Barnett and the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut.
In a letter submitted to federal officials last year, the town council said the offer was inadequate compensation for "virtual elimination of its tax base."
"I think the tribe is still willing to be at the table with the city, but it isn't likely the tribe is going to bid against itself," Horenstein said. "In other words, we made an offer. We need a response."
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