Oakland Tribune - Inside Bay Area
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 the 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 out of hand. 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," said Councilmember Jean Quan 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, worsen East Oakland's intractable crime problem, and devastate 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. "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 messagesFriday. 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."
Councilmember Larry Reid, 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.
Staff writers Josh Richman and Susan McDonough contributed to this story. E-mail Heather MacDonald at hmacdonald@dailyreviewonline.com.