How to resolve AdBlock issue? The county received an invitation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to comment on two separate applications – one for seven parcels, one for 14 parcels – last month, as Lake County News has reported.
Among the key concerns for the county are potential land use conflicts and loss of property tax revenue if the properties – located near the tribe’s Konocti Vista Casino – are taken into trust.
On Tuesday, before the board’s discussion of the item, Supervisor Moke Simon – who is tribal chair of Middletown Rancheria – recused himself. Supervisor EJ Crandell, who is tribal chair for Robinson Rancheria, remained on the dais with his fellow supervisors.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson told the board that after the county received the first notice last month regarding the application for the initial seven parcels from the BIA and Department of Interior, it put together a committee of department heads and staff to craft the response.
Before they were finished with the response to the first notice, the county received the second for the remaining 21 parcels. So they’ve prepared two different responses for the two sets of parcels, detailing general comments and concerns, and expressing a desire to engage in discussion with the tribe in order to gain a better understanding about what they have planned.
Huchingson’s written report said the BIA had extended the response deadline until April 18.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier asked what additional information staff wanted. Huchingson said concerns that arose, focusing on the first seven parcels, is that the request said the tribe intends to use the land for the purposes for which it is currently zoned, which is ag and residential.
“At the same time, we found information about the tribe’s intent to expand casino operations and have a commercial center in the area as well, so that wouldn’t be consistent with the current zoning,” Huchingson said.
She said some of the lands also have been improved, including being paved and developed in other ways, so the current assessed values probably are not up to date because they were not done with permits, and typically permits usually trigger reassessment.
Huchingson said they were hoping to have a dialogue and had invited the tribe, and Tribal Administrator Ben Ray III was on hand to explain the tribe’s fee to trust applications.
Ray explained that the 21 parcels are not part of a commercial center, cannabis operation or casino. He said the tribe has land already in trust, directly adjacent from tribal housing on Soda Bay Road, where the proposed commercial center will be located.
The project isn’t new. “We've been developing it for at least three years,” he said.
Ray said there is “absolutely no change in land use proposed currently” for the proposed fee to trust properties.
He said that the 21 parcels proposed to be taken into trust were all part of the original 100 acres “that comprised the Big Valley Rancheria prior to illegal termination in the 1950s.”
Ray added that the tribe reacquired the land over time. When he became tribal administrator, he said he asked why the land wasn’t in trust and that’s why he started the process. He said the tribe had gone to Huchingson some time ago to explain their plans.
He said the seven parcels outlined in the first BIA notice total about two acres and are located on Mission Way. Property tax for that land totals $1,375.52 annually.
The other 14 parcels in the second application are along Mission Rancheria Road, Soda Bay Road and two on Meadow Drive behind the tribe’s RV Park, and total approximately 49.18 acres, Ray said. Total annual property tax for that land totals $10,031.60.
Ray said Huchingson had discussed with him the loss of tax revenue to the county. “We’re very sensitive to that,” he said, acknowledging the county has taken hits, and that some of their tribal members also have lost homes in the fires. The tribe also has provided space for an emergency operations center for the county.
He said the tribe also has paid into the Special Distribution Fund which has provided funds for local law enforcement, fire and emergency services, as well as offered other financial support.
The tribe doesn’t have plans for the properties other than their current planning uses. He said their cannabis operations are already on trust land, like the 20-acre commercial center parcel.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he appreciated the information. He suggested the extension would be good to get clarification.
Huchingson said the county had received a 15-day extension on the first application from the BIA and wanted to appeal to the BIA again and explain that based on the nature of this discussion that they request another extension to dig in further.
“Are you OK with that?” Crandell asked.
Ray said he believed the county had the documents for well over a year and that he hadn’t gotten any previous questions, and they were welcome to seek another extension.
“We just got this,” Brown said of the information. He assured Ray that they wanted it to work and that no board member wanted to put a halt to forward movement.
Ray said the county should have had a large application packet, but Huchingson said she didn’t have it, and that her first notice of the project was the letter from the BIA. She added that she hadn’t heard anything about the project since talking to Ray a few years ago.
Ray said the tribe was told that the documents were sent out by BIA, and he said he would follow up with the agency to find out why the document’s weren’t sent.
“We’ve spent tremendous amount of money, and effort and time putting the whole thing together,” Ray said, adding he was disappointed to hear the county hadn’t received the full package.
He said the process to move the land into trust was going on two years.
“Sometimes these fee to trust applications can take longer than two, three, four years. They take awhile,” said Crandell.
Sabatier supported reviewing the information so the county doesn’t end up sending a letter to BIA that would be a hurdle to the tribe’s plans.
The board reached consensus to go back and look at the letter the county plans to send the BIA and bring it back on Tuesday. Board Chair Tina Scott said she would send Ray a copy of the letter before next week’s meeting, and Ray said he would get them a copy of the applications.
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