LOLETA -- Although the recent announcement of a proposed casino here may be news to some, the project has a long history of on-again, off-again plans.
The past and present construction of the Bear River Casino off Singley Road has rankled some nearby residents, and led to several years of heated debate over the site and the casino's impact on the environment.

The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria has had its sights on building a casino on Singley Hill for most of the past decade. After a false start in the mid-1990s, when a casino was half built before the plug was pulled, the tribe is once again starting construction, and this time seems to have more of its legal ducks in a row.

In that first attempt, several important hurdles were not cleared before construction began, and the list likely contributed to that initial project's ultimate demise.

The tribe bought the 60-acre Singley Hill property with an Indian Community Development Block Grant acquired in 1989. Opponents to the casino say the land was meant for housing, and housing only.

"The primary purpose of the grant was to provide land to build new homes for tribal members," said a 1997 letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to a Singley Road resident.

But restrictions on the use of the land were in effect for only five years after the grant closed, so by October 1996, the tribe was free to build as it wanted.
Still, building was under way before the tribe had its environmental documents approved.

"It is our understanding that the tribe has commenced construction activities," said Kevin Meisner, acting general counsel for the National Indian Gaming Commission in a letter dated June 1997. "We note that while a draft environmental assessment was prepared, that document has not been accepted by the government and no finding of no significant impact has been issued. Thus, without the required approvals and National Environmental Policy Act compliance, it is unlawful for the tribe to continue construction."

Construction ceased at the end of May 1997, after much of the framing had been erected and the foundation laid.

Now, the tribe has a final environmental evaluation approved and the Tribal Council has issued a finding of no significant environmental impact, although many of its neighbors take issue with the evaluation and it conclusions.
Negotiations are ongoing on what precisely the tribe will do to lessen off-reservation impacts.

The tribe's land on Singley Hill is functionally the tribe's reservation. It holds the tribe's governmental offices and more tribal families live there than on the Rohnerville Rancheria near Fortuna.

But in order to secure approval to game on the land, the tribe had to prove to the National Indian Gaming Commission that the land was restored to the tribe to make up for lands lost when the tribe lost federal recognition. National Indian Gaming Commission rules say tribes cannot build casinos on trust lands acquired after Oct. 17, 1988, unless they fall under various exceptions, one being the lands are restored.

The tribe originally submitted a letter to the commission asserting that the land fell under that exception. The commission needed more proof, so the tribe submitted a 420-page study by anthropologist Lee Davis, head of San Francisco State University's California Studies Institute, to prove its historic claims to the land.

The exception was ultimately granted partially because the land in question was used by the band's ancestors.

"The tribe has, therefore, proven a historical and cultural nexus to the land sufficient to show that the parcel was not merely an acquisition but a restoration of previously used lands," the decision states.

But the approval came in 2002, well after the tribe had begun and then abandoned their first attempt at building a casino.

Tribal leaders said recently that the original casino project was halted due to an agreement reached between an attorney representing the tribe and the State Attorney General's Office, in which the tribe agreed to wait for a compact with the state government to be signed.

At the same time, the tribe had lost its investors, the National Indian Gaming Commission had yet to give the tribe clearance to game on the land and growing furor in the community likely made the project unmanageable.