Action in response to locals’ concerns

By Onell R. Soto, STAFF WRITER
May 8, 2008

The Pauma Indian band has scaled back plans for its $300 million resort hotel, cutting its tower from 23 stories to 19, trimming the size of the gambling floor and eliminating an outdoor amphitheater.

The tribe says the changes are in response to community concerns voiced last year after it announced details of the proposed resort it is building north of Valley Center with help from a tribe in Connecticut that operates Foxwoods, the largest casino in the world.

“We did everything we could to address those concerns,” Chris Devers, chairman of the 176-member Pauma tribe, said yesterday.

The changes deal with issues such as traffic, noise, water and visual impact, he said.

The faltering economy, which has caused income to drop at casinos coast to coast, was not behind the changes, Devers said.

Several community members who had complained about the plan last fall were satisfied with the revamped proposal.

“Hopefully, it’s improved the development,” said Charles Mathews, who co-wrote a protest letter signed by 125 neighbors. Many but not all concerns were considered, he said.

Mathews and two other neighbors who wrote the letter met with tribal leaders after a contentious hearing last fall with residents near the proposed resort.

The county and the tribe now can begin negotiating over ways to make up for how the casino will affect neighbors.

John Snyder, who leads county negotiations with tribes, said it was too early to comment.

Pauma signed a compact with the state in 2004 that allows it to operate an unlimited number of slot machines, although how much money it gives toward state coffers goes up exponentially as it adds machines.

The exact number of machines in the casino hasn’t been set, but the tribe plans to roughly double the 1,090 machines at its existing casino, which operates out of large, metal-framed tents.

The 400-room resort will include a 1,500-car parking structure, a spa, a pool, an events center and 16 cabanas.

The primary changes from the proposal unveiled in August:

Cutting the height of the hotel by 17 percent, though not the number of rooms. The hotel will be wider instead.

Agreeing to fund a traffic light and road widening at state Route 76 and Pauma Reservation Road, about one-third of a mile south of the casino.

Cutting the casino floor by 10,000 square feet to 73,500, eliminating the amphitheater and agreeing to abide by the county’s rules to prevent light pollution.

Agreeing to fund additional sheriff’s deputies, expand the tribal fire department and sign mutual-aid agreements with neighboring firefighting agencies.

Agreeing to conservation methods that officials expect will result in the new resort’s using less water than the existing casino and fruit orchards.

The changes are reflected in a 2-inch-thick document that simultaneously covers the environmental impacts of the tribe’s decision to build the casino and the approval by the federal government of a management agreement with a subsidiary of Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

That tribe operates 7,400-slot Foxwoods, the world’s largest casino, between New York and Boston. Devers said the tribe is still working on finding financing for the project, and that it’s unclear when workers will begin construction.

Onell Soto: (619) 593-4958; onell.soto@uniontrib.com
© Copyright 2008 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Posted on May 8th, 2008 by hunwut
Filed under: Gaming, Hotel & Resorts, Reservations