The long line of cars traveling to the Cache Creek Casino Resort via Highway 16 is angering Capay Valley residents who feel their complaints are falling on deaf ears.

A few dozen people attended a public meeting at the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation's tribal offices Thursday evening for their opportunity to comment on the tribes proposed 414,110-square-foot expansion of the casino.

"By putting this casino here it has created a monster: traffic," 35-year Guinda resident Angelo Stanton told project director Pete Bontadelli during the meeting. "If the tribe wants to do something about it, where is Marshall McKay? I feel slighted."

McKay has returned from an unexplained leave of absence he took in late April. Several employees of the tribe attended the meeting but did not address the audience. Instead, a brief presentation was made by Bontadelli on behalf of the his firm, Analytical Environmental Services, which was hired by the tribe to complete the draft Tribal Environmental Impact Report for the project.

The proposed expansion includes a brand new event and conference center that will measure 52,440 square feet, additional gaming and dining areas, and 129,849 square feet of additional facility and warehousing.

The facility and warehouse space will be used to support existing and anticipated needs like security, employee dining, general storage, training rooms and more.

The new facilities will be built primarily on the casino's existing parking lot, so 900 spaces will be transferred up to six stories high in a new parking garage. The end result will require an additional 400 employees and the event center can accommodate as many as 2,300 new patrons, according to the plan.

The projected increase in traffic that will come as a direct result of the facilities will be paid for entirely by the tribe. Those road improvements include turnout pockets along Highway 16, a walking path in Esparto, turning lanes on Highway 16 at County Road 89 and a temporary traffic light at Highway 16 and CR 85B to be used during major events at the conference center.

Other areas surrounding the casino are addressed as cumulative impacts, meaning mitigation will be shared by the county because of projected growth under the 2030 General Plan.

But other Capay Valley roads, such as county Roads 23, 85 and 14, get no consideration. Esparto Fire Chief Barry Burns said at the meeting that he has noticed an increase in traffic on these roads from patrons who have found a less direct, but perhaps faster route to the casino.

Bontadelli said there is no mention of these roads in the EIR because they are far from meeting the "loss of service" needed to warrant mitigation. He said his firm used methodology approved by Caltrans and Yolo County, which scores loss of service on an A-F scale by combining a driver's average speed and the percentage of time one driver spends following another. If a road scores anything above a D, it does not need mitigation, according to Bontadelli.

It's not just the presence of cars that bothers residents, but the amount of noise they make. Pat and Russ Vellines live a mile off Highway 16, but say they can still hear cars passing.

Russ Vellines said he grew up in the Capay Valley and recognizes there are sacrifices one makes to live in "the country," but he pointed out the irony of noise from traffic now being one of them.

"If you are a resident and you don't go to the casino, there is no upside to it," Pat said. "We absorb it, and six years from now (the tribe) is going to need another expansion to be competitive."

The Vellineses and others at Thursday's meeting want a park-and-ride option to come to fruition, which the county and tribe agreed on in a 2008 Memorandum of Understanding.

Bontadelli said the MOU outlines a 125-space parking lot at Highway 16 and Interstate 505, but talks with the county and Yolobus representatives concluded carpooling and bus vouchers would provide equal or greater benefits in terms of traffic. He said the tribe pays for bus Route 215 from Woodland to the casino, adding that a parking lot would have impacted a significant amount of ag land.

Another proposal that would take even more ag land out of rotation is the construction of a new road that would connect with I-505 and end at the backside of the casino. Bontadelli said the idea has been discussed, but due to the environmental impact it is highly unlikely.

The public has until Aug. 6 to comment on the draft EIR, after which Analytical Environmental Services will respond to all comments and issue a final EIR. From there, the county and the tribe will have 55 days to negotiate a MOU, which includes mitigation. Currently, the tribe pays the county more than $5 million annually for mitigation.

If all goes as planned, the tribe plans to break ground on the expansion in Spring 2011 and estimates the project will take between 18 and 24 months.

Copies of the TEIR are available at any public library in the county, at the county administrator's office, or at  www.cachecreekteir.com.