Koi Nation: Oakland casino
'dead'
Under pressure from nearby cities,
Indian tribe lets option on land near the
airport lapse
By Heather MacDonald, Staff Writer,
Inside Bay Area
Saturday, June 11, 2005
OAKLAND — Plans to turn a parking lot near
Oakland International Airport into a 2,000-slot
casino went bust Friday, prompting gleeful
city officials to declare victory. In a letter to Oakland City Council President
Ignacio De La Fuente, owners of the 35-acre
parcel adjacent to the Arrowhead Marsh wildlife
refuge said the Lower Lake Rancheria Koi
Nation's proposal is "dead." Despite Koi Nation's offer to pay Oakland
$30 million a year for 20 years in return
for the city's support of the hotel, casino
and spa complex, the City Council rejected
the proposal. The cities of Alameda , San Leandro and
Berkeley , as well as Alameda County , also
opposed the project. Oakland officials credited the cities' joint
stance for the swift demise of the casino
proposal, introduced just eight months ago. "Not many people gave us the odds to defeat
it this quickly," Councilmember Jean Quan
(Montclair-Laurel) said at a news conference
along the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional
Shoreline Park . Critics of the proposal said it would bring
a raft of social ills, makeEast Oakland 's
intractable crime problem worse, and decimate
the newly restored marsh. Proponents countered
that it could solve the city's budget problems,
adding $1 billion a year and providing 4,400
jobs to the city's economy. "It's an amazing victory," said Vice Mayor
Jane Brunner ( North Oakland ). "This will
ensure Oakland gets the kind of businesses
we need, and to ensure that it's a peaceful
area and not a gambling area." City officials were on the verge of allocating
$800,000 to fight the casino in court, De
La Fuente said. Representatives of the tribe and Chairman
Daniel Beltran did not return repeated phone
messages Friday. After the council voted
to oppose the casino, Beltran had promised
to continue with plans for the casino, saying
it would lift the roughly 50 members of his
tribe out of poverty and benefit Oakland
. The Koi Nation had until the end of May
to buy the proposed casino site. The tribe's
option on the land lapsed and has been terminated,
according to Steven M. Dunn, senior vice
president of Legacy Partners, owner of the
property near Pardee Drive and Swan Way .
Even if Koi Nation and its partners had decided
to proceed, they would have faced a complicated,
years-long approval process made more difficult
by the opposition of surrounding cities. Several officials said the tribe would have
had difficulty proving its claim to land
in Oakland . Now landless, Koi Nation's ancestral
home is near Clearlake. However, the tribe
claimed it traveled trade routes through
Alameda County , giving it the right to claim
land in the East Bay . The Muwekma Ohlones, a San Jose-based tribe,
claim to be the original inhabitants of the
San Francisco Bay region. However, they are
not recognized by the federal government,
a requirement for a reservation. Quan said opponents' strategy to defeat
the casino included labeling Koi Nation as
the "poster child for reservation shopping." Through his spokesman, Mayor Jerry Brown
said he was not surprised the casino proposal
fizzled. "The writing was on the wall a long
time ago," Brown said. Councilmember Larry Reid (Elmhurst-East
Oakland), the only member of the council
to support the casino, said he was disappointed
and frustrated by the turn of events. "As a politician, I know when to quit," said
Reid, who was praised by his colleagues for
being gracious in defeat. "We have to move
on." In his letter to De La Fuente, Dunn said
the parking lot would continue to operate
for the foreseeable future while Legacy markets
the remaining 16 acres, which is currently
zoned for light industrial uses. But Reid, whose council district includes
the area, said he would prefer to see offices
or an outlet mall built on what had been
planned to be a 200,000-square-foot casino
complex. "It should be a development that benefits
the entire city," Reid said, adding that
Oakland 's need for new sales tax revenue
is critical and industrial businesses may
not be appropriate next to the shoreline. Reid said the city must find ways to eliminate
a $31.7 million budget shortfall without
asking voters to increase taxes or laying
off workers. "For me, a casino made sense," Reid
said. The final nail in the coffin may have come
earlier this month when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
declared his opposition to all tribal land
acquisitions in urban areas to build casinos,
several officials said. "I think that the Koi Nation acted in a
very sensitive and responsible way in pulling
back their application," said Assemblywoman
Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, a critic of urban
gaming.
City officials said their victory celebration
was tempered by the knowledge that Koi Nation
was unlikely to be the last landless, federally
recognized Indian tribe with ties to the
Bay Area that seeks to build a casino in
Oakland,
Staff writers Josh Richman and Susan McDonough
contributed to this story. E-mail Heather
MacDonald at hmacdonald@angnewspapers.com .
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_2796380 |