A proposed expansion at Cache Creek Casino Resort and a plan to widen and straighten the rural state highway that connects the Capay Valley's hamlets will create speed and safety problems, farmers and others residents say.

They gathered last week at the Esparto Community Hall, which resembles a log cabin in the town of 2,500, to comment on the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation's environmental impact report. They generally refrained from criticizing the tribe, which many valley residents have come to accept as a complicated neighbor – one that sometimes benefits the community and sometimes causes headaches.

Instead they talked about road conditions.

Several speakers took aim at a California Department of Transportation plan to widen and straighten Highway 16, the subject of a pending lawsuit. They said the tribe was relying on the Caltrans safety-improvement project to mitigate increased casino traffic and has no backup plan.

Paul Muller, an organic farmer in the valley, said he worried the changes would allow drivers to go faster and cause more accidents. Others said the widened shoulders would provide safer conditions for emergency crews and farm equipment.

Several speakers debated whether it was better for Esparto, a farm town that has seen better days, to have casino traffic flowing down its main street or to detour it around the town.

Even the small number of casino-bound drivers who stop at local businesses help those businesses survive, went one argument, while others said the gamblers speeding through town were a danger to pedestrians and upset the quiet, small-town ambience.

One thing the residents agreed on were the worsening safety conditions on county roads because of increased casino traffic.

"The county doesn't seem too concerned about county roads," said Barry Burns, chief of the Esparto Fire Protection District and a member of Yolo County's Advisory Committee on Tribal Matters.

Burns said traffic has increased on the county's back roads as casino patrons and employees have learned shortcuts around congested Highway 16. Those shortcuts were once known only by locals.

He said his firefighters have responded to a consistent number of casino-related accidents in recent years – fewer than two dozen annually – but the percentage of accidents on county roads has gone up.

The tribe that owns the Cache Creek Casino Resort is pursuing a plan to add 250,000 square feet to its existing 400,000-square-foot facility – already a hulking presence in the narrow, winding valley of almond orchards and organic farms.

The plan – a scaled-back version of a prior proposal that also included a hotel tower – would add a 2,200-seat event center, a six-story parking garage and 22,000 square feet of gambling space.

There is consensus that the county's rural roads are in poor condition and need to be upgraded. A recent Yolo County Grand Jury report on the impact of the Cache Creek Casino Resort said the county's roads were generally in "at risk" condition, a step below poor.

It would take $500 million over the next 10 years to bring the pavement on the county's roads to good condition, but the county had allocated only $16 million for road improvements in its 2009-10 budget, the grand jurors found.

The county and tribe will negotiate over mitigation dollars for the casino expansion, but residents expressed skepticism that the money would be used for local road improvements.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/26/2914195/capay-valley-residents-debate.html#ixzz0unQsg1cH