HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report Graton Rancheria 04/16/2012 J ,
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DATE: April 16, 2012
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: John C. Brown; City Manager
SUBJECT: Discussion and Possible Approval of Letter to the North Bay Legislative
Delegation Regarding Ratification of Governor Brown's Gaming Compact with
the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria for a 3,000 Slot Machine Casino Near
Rohnert Park.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council consider the addition of this item to the agenda; and if
added, consider approving and signing the attached letter to"the North Bay Legislative
Delegation regarding ratification of Governor Brown's Gaming;Compact with the Federated
Indians of Graton Rancheria for a 3,000 slot machine casino near Rohnert Park.
BACKGROUND
Pursuant,to Rule•tl (A)(3) of the Council's Rules, Policies and Procedures, after the draft agenda
has been approved.bythe City Council, and before the posting of said agenda for the City
Council meeting in which the items will be addressed, additional items shall be placed on said
agenda when the City Manager receives a request by two Councilmembers, either verbally or in
writing,that an item be added to the agenda. Items added in this manner will be addressed by
the Council if a majority of the Councilmembers present at the meeting votes to address the item.
DISCUSSION
The City Council provided electronic comments on the Final Environmental hnpact Statement
for the Graton Rancheria Casino in Rohnert Park on March 26, 2009 and followed up with a
letter to the National/Indian Gaming Commission on April 1, 2009, summarizing those
comments, which is attached for reference.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Memorandum dated April 9, 2012
2. Draft Letter
3. Letter dated April 1, 2009 to National Indian Gaining Commission
Agenda Review:
City Attorney Finance Director City Manager
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a �,"�k- CITY OF PETALUMA•
� ,:l- POST OFFICE BOX 61
-1.8 $ PETALUl tA,CA 94953-0061
Pamela Torliatt April l, 2009 .
Mayor
Teresa Barrett National Indian Gaming Commission
David Glass
• Mike Harris Attn: Brad Mehaffy
Mike Healy 1441 L Street.NW .
David Rabbits _
Tiffany Renee Suite 9100
Councilmembers Washington, DC.20005
RE: City ofPetaluma Comments on the Final Environmental
Impact Statement for the Graton Rancheria Casino
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Dear Mr. Mehaffy:
The City of Petaluma provided electronic comments on the Final Environmental
Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Graton Rancheria Casino in Rohnert Park,
California on March 26, .2009 in order to.respond for the record prior to the
March 29, 2009 date in the Notice of Availability. This letter reiterates:those
comments and.represents the City of„Petaluma s official position regarding the
adequacy-of the FEIS.
We ask that the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) consider these
• and the comments of other local government agencies in Sonoma County who .
-City Manager's Office are greatly concerned about the significant and unresolved impacts associated
7 English Street
Petaluma.C A 94952 with the:proposed casino. Especially in these uncertain economic times, the
NIGC needs to be•even more mindful of the limited-ability of local government
Phone(707)778-4345 to simply absorb,the unmitigated impacts of the proposed Graton Rancheria
Fax(707)778-4419 P Y g P P P
. E-Mail Casino. We further request that no final decision be made unless and until the
ctrymrr rt ct.petatnm°.`a.as •FEIS and, if necessary, the project are -modified to insure that all identified .
impacts can be adequately and feasibly mitigated to the satisfaction of the •
Human Resources affected surrounding jurisdictions, including:the Ci of Petaluma.
Phone(707)77s-as3a. g J � City
Fax(707)778-4539
E-Mail -
humarsresourees(rr1 Our formal comments on. the FEIS are as follows and, again, restate the
ctpetaluma.caua comments that were submitted electronically prior to March 29, 2009:
Information Technology 1. Water Supply: FEIS Section5>reflects the change:of assumption to the use of
Phone(707)778-4477 all groundwater thereby eliminating Mitigation Measure Y. (working with
Fax(707)776.3623
E-Mail SCWA to obtain additional surface water). However, in Section 5 - Mitigation
it@ci.peiatemo.ca.us Measures Sectiom5, Measure Y.(".:.work with the Cities of Rohnert Park and
. Petaluma and SCWA to find and deliver more surface water...) is retained for
Risk Management Alternative F (the Lakeville site).. No information is provided on the source of
I I English Street the surface water, as mentioned in our comment for the Draft Environmental
*Petaluma,CA 94952
Phone(707)776.3695 Impact Statement. If the source is Russian River water, more information
Fax(707) 776-3697 needs to be provided. Also, the EIS would have to address the cumulative
E-Mail impact of implementing this mitigation measure and providing Russian River
rtskmgtr)ct petaluma.ca.us
water for a casino at the Alternative F location, and the cumulative growth q '
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inducing'impacts of extending a water service line into the southern Sonoma
County area.
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2. Groundwater impacts:, Page 12 of 76 (same section) offers a conclusion
statement of "less-than-significant level for Alternatives A, B, C, D, E and
H..."then fails to find a finding of significant and unavoidable for Alternative
• F, which should be clearly stated within the document.
3. Mitigation Measure CC!, Section 5, requires the casino to notify well owners
within"2 miles of the;casino proposed wells to offer impact compensation from
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saltwater intrusion due to excessive drawdown of.the water table in the
southern Sonoma County area:.
rea Paying off someone who experiences saltwater
intrusion due to overdrafting of the groundwater table by a casino well is not a
reasonable .and foreseeable reality; it is not adequately quantified, and no
•guarantee is put into place to ensure compliance. Mitigation AA•(page 9 of 75,
Section 5) is inadequate, vague, unenforceable,,and does not address the long-
term, cumulative impact of significantly impairing the groundwater supplies for
this agricultural area.
• 4. The City of Petaluma appreciates•the responses and changes made with
respect to our earlier comments. However, the City remains concerned
with"the adequacy of the traffic analyses with respect to the distribution
of traffic through.Petaluma. Additional analysis is needed to assess the
potential impacts and identify mitigations within the context of project
. completion prior to Highway 101 improvements as well as after
completion of the planned highway improvements. The proposed
casino's trip generation (estimated at 18,000 per day) will result in
significant congestion on Highway 101 south of Rohnert Park and
consequently the use of alternate, parallel routes through Petaluma by
those seeking.to avoid that congestion, In-particularthe City is concerned.
about impacts to the Lakeville Highway corridor and the Old Redwood
Highway interchange and Stony Point Road and intersection with Old
• - Redwood Highway in Petaluma.
5. The City of Petaluma echoes the concerns of the County of Sonoma with
respect to Highway 101 impacts and the FEIS at a minimum should
address any funding shortfalls associated with the Highway 101 HOV
projects. In addition,should the Record of Decision be issued, the NIGC -
• should select the reduced intensity project as a means of reducing the
number of trips and associated impacts.
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On behalf of the City Council and-the citizens of Petaluma, I want to thank the .
' NIGC in advance for its consideration of these comments in its decision-making
process. If you have any questions or require'further information, please do not
hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely, /` /
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/Pamela Torliatt
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Mayor
c: City Council
• City Manager
City Attorney. . •
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors .
Sonoma County Mayors ,
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Senator Diane Feinstein
Senator Barbara Boxer •
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Congressmember Lynn Woolsey •
. California Senator Mark Leno
• California Assemblymember Jared Huffman
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MEMORANDUM
1 o: .John Brown '
�r cam.;
Subject. Agenda.Request t
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Pursuant to Rule 11(A)(3) of'the Council's Rules,Pohuc t �� Fl�e
undersigned hereby request1hat The following item he adde&to the . •-� c t ie
Council's April 16, 2012'aieeting:
Discussion and possible approval of!ctter to North Bay legislative
.dclegationregarding ratification of Govei iior.[3roMi's,gaming compact
with the Federated Indians of Orator Rancheria fora 3.000 slot machine
casino near Rohnert"Park.
Dated: April 9, 2012 e"°� 6' 1/2 _F evj
Dated: April 172012 .4 _
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April , 2012
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Hon. Noreen Evans
Hon. Mark Leno , �
Hon. Lois Wolk
Hon. Michael Allen
Hon. Wesley Chesbro
Hon. Jared Huffman
Hon. Mariko Yamada
Re. Gaming Compact for Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria RohnertPark
Casino
Dear Senators and Assemblvmeinbers:
We write to the North Bay delegation of the California legislature to respectfully request
that you not vote to ratify the gaming compact recently signed by Governor Brown.
The reason is that the compact does not require`the=proposed casino to mitigate its
impacts on the surrounding communities. Two examples amply illustrate the problem.
The EIS for the casino assumed that it would have2.000 slof machines. This generated
amexpected 18,000 vehicle'trips per day, much of which would-be on US 101. Although
the casino will'fund sonic irnproveriients to local streets, neither the EIS nor the compact
require the casino to spend one dine mitigating its iinpactson 101. As you know,
hundreds of millions of taxpayer.dollars have;been;spent adding diamond lanes to 101 in
Marin and Sonoma, but completing,the task— especially the Novato Narrows—will
require hundreds of millions;more.
The Final.EIR/S'for the Mariii-SonomaNarrows HOV'Widening Project notes that the
casino's 18,000 vehicle trips per day will increase Average Daily Traffic on 101 in North
Petaluma(seven miles:from the casino site).by ten percent, which it states hopefully
should"not [be] ... overwhelming" FEIR/S,`Vol,3 at p. 3.5731. Now, with 3.000 slot
machines instead'of 2,000, the increase in 101 traffic in Petaluma due to the casino will
be closer to 15%0; and the casino's traffic plume will extend'.all'through Marin. No
compact-should be approved until the casino is required to pay its full fair share of,
completed and future highway wideningin Marin and Sonoma.
The second impact we would bring to your attention is water supply: Inexplicably, the
casino EIS fails to'identify,a water source. The casino has no legal right to purchase
water from either the City of Rohnert.Park or the.Sonoma County Water Agency. Yet, if
it drills 1;000 foot;wells on;its:site,as-is now proposed,this would further deplete an
aquifer that is already overdrawn. Because of that, we=expect intense pressure to allow it
to purchase-SCWA water-, which is the common supply for the entire region, including
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Petaluma. It is not:appropriate:for this casino either to negate the sterling conservation
efforts of our citizens, or to increase the risk of water supply shortages in the region.
We recognize that the Graton Rancheria has agreed to,monetary payments to the City of
Rolmert,Park, and that a similar Memorandum of Understanding with the County of
Sonoma is probably forthcoming. However, the serious regional traffic and water supply
impacts described above need to be mitigated as well.
David Glass, Mayor Tiffany Renee, Vice Mayor
Chris Albertson, Councilmember Teresa'Barrett, Councilmember
Mike Harris, Councilmember Mike Healy, Councilmember
Gabe Kearney, Councilmember
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