Scotts Valley Native tribe seeks to move forward with Vallejo casino project

VALLEJO – A proposal by a Native American tribe to build a new casino in Vallejo is poised to move forward after a years long court battle and despite objections from local officials and a local Native tribe. 

The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians has proposed a 160-acre site at the northeast intersection of Highway 80 and Route 37 which would include an  eight-story casino, to be open 24 hours a day, restaurants, bars, a ballroom for events, 24 houses and a tribal administration building. 

The project site currently includes undeveloped land and a horse boarding facility, which would be demolished. A 45-acre biological preserve area would be set aside on the northeastern hillside, and a wetland area on the southern portion of the site would be maintained.

“For generations, our people have endured hardships, including the loss of our ancestral lands and the challenges of being one of the few landless Indian tribes in the United States,” Scotts Valley Band board chairman Shawn Davis said during a recent meeting to collect feedback on the project. “This project represents a significant opportunity to reverse that history."

Local officials, and even another Native tribe, have expressed concerns about the project, including that they haven’t had sufficient time to renew the proposal and that the Scotts Valley tribe lacks a historical connection to the Vallejo area. But because the proposal is conducted at the federal level, the city of Vallejo, Solano County, and the state of California have no decision-making authority over the matter.

An environmental assessment released by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs states that the Scotts Valley Band is a federally recognized landless tribe, and that putting the Vallejo site into trust status would allow it to reestablish its homeland and establish a tribal government headquarters.

But the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, a Patwin tribe with historical roots in the Solano County area, is adamantly against the project, saying they have a much greater historical claim to the land, and that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has cut them out of the decision-making process.

A statement on the Wintun Nation’s website argues that the Scotts Valley tribe is not landless because they own property in Clear Lake. “Scotts Valley is not seeking to recover its former reservation northwest of Clear Lake – instead, it has sought to appropriate Patwin ancestral lands in the Bay Area, nearly 100 miles away,” the statement says.

The Scotts Valley tribe has been trying to build a casino in Vallejo since 2016. That proposal drew sharp objections from city and county officials, including then-Vallejo City Attorney Claudia Quintana, who argued that the tribe lacked a sufficient historical connection to the Vallejo area and that the project would limit the city’s ability to regulate and tax the land.

“We were stunned,” former Vallejo City Manager Dan Keen told CBS News in 2016. The Scotts Valley tribe filed a claim with the federal government to have the Vallejo site declared their native homeland in January of that year, but the city only learned about the casino project that July.

“It just strikes us as an effort to intentionally exclude the city and any other parties that might have concerns, legitimate concerns, about this,” Keen said.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said there was insufficient evidence to grant the request and the tribe withdrew the proposal in 2017. The tribe reinstated the request in 2019 and was denied on the grounds that they lack significant historical connection to Vallejo. They appealed, and in 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia returned the case to the Interior Department for further review. The department then published the environmental assessment on July 8, triggering a 30-day review process. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs held a virtual public hearing on July 23, where comments were evenly split for and against the proposal. Those in favor cited economic benefit to the area and a benefit to the Scotts Valley Band. 

Those against the project said that the bureau lacked transparency and failed to include key stakeholders in the decision making process, and expressed fears of increased traffic and crime, a negative impact on public resources, and the loss of cultural resources and open space. 

Many demanded that the decision be postponed to allow time for a complete environmental report —  rather than an environmental assessment — to be conducted, with more outreach to the public. Several also stated that wealthy Las Vegas casino investors would be the primary beneficiaries.

The site was purchased in 2016 by Las Vegas company Integrated Resort Development LLC,   which is owned by casino architect Paul Steelman. Another Las Vegas company, GTL Properties LLC, owned by casino executive Gregory Lee, is listed as the current owner.

Anthony Roberts of the Wintun Nation called the outreach efforts by the bureau “a charade of a public process that has caused sorrow and heartache for me and my people.” He cited repeated requests from his tribe and government officials that the bureau establish a fair, transparent, and fact-based review process. “This is not that,” he said.

Matt Adams, another Wintun Nation member, said the project would harm endangered plant and animal species, destroy cultural sites, and increase air pollution and traffic congestion. 

“It is also clear to us that you don't know for sure where the water comes from, don't know for sure where the wastewater goes, don’t know about fire, don’t know about police, don’t know what kind of grading or foundations are needed to build on the landslides out there, whether it can be done at all,” Adams said. 

Three members of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union Local 180 spoke in favor of the project, saying it would bring badly needed jobs to Vallejo.

William Elliot, an 83 year-old Vallejo resident, said that the city of Vallejo, like the tribes, had suffered at the hands of the U.S. government when the decision was made to close the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and Vallejo’s economic engine disappeared. 

“When I saw the opportunity of the casino, the hotels, the employment that this project proposes. It may be selfish, but while it will be good for the tribe, it will be good for the city of Vallejo, also, for us to have another means of improving our economy,” Elliot said.

Vallejo resident Paula Conley expressed concern that a casino would increase crime in the area. “In San Pablo, one year after a casino was installed, they had a 341% increase in emergency calls, a 232% increase in ambulance calls and a 343% increase in trespassing calls nearby to the casino,” she said.

But San Pablo City Manager Matt Rodriguez objected for a different reason, that the Vallejo casino could create competition for San Pablo’s, and therefore affect the city’s bottom line.

Rodriguez said that the San Pablo Lytton Casino revenue provides nearly 65% of that city's annual general fund budget, and that he was very concerned about the limited analysis done on the economic analysis component of the environmental assessment, which projects an $8 to 10 million impact in the city of San Pablo. He said that it would be a travesty to “rubber stamp” the environmental assessment.

The bureau  extended the public comment period from Aug. 7 to Aug. 22, but several local elected officials said that it still wasn’t enough to conduct an adequate review.

Comments can be submitted by email to chad.broussard@bia.gov, or by postal mail to Amy Dutschke, Regional Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pacific Regional Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Room W–2820, Sacramento, CA 95825.

Include “EA Comments, Scotts Valley Casino and Tribal Housing Project” at the top of written communications or in the email subject line.