Two weeks after several community groups held a meeting to inform residents about recent efforts by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians to annex 1,400 acres into its reservation, the tribe has scheduled a public assembly of its own.
To be held at 6 p.m. Friday in the casino’s Samala Showroom in Santa Ynez, the meeting is meant to describe the tribe’s need to use the land, known locally as Camp 4, for tribal housing, according to an announcement Wednesday by the tribe.

“Many questions have surfaced regarding our Camp 4 property,” Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta said in a written statement. “While we don’t yet have development plans in place, we do know that tribal housing is a priority for us.  In addition, we would like to put to rest concerns the community may have regarding the process of placing land into federal trust.”

According to the tribe’s announcement, speakers at their meeting will include Armenta; former Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Carl Artman; All Mission Indian Housing Authority Executive Director Dave Schaffer; and Bureau of Indian Affairs Pacific Region Assistant Director Kevin Bearquiver.
After introductions, the panelists will speak and then take questions, a tribal representative said.

The Chumash have indicated their desire to add the land,  about 2 miles east of the casino, to their 130-acre reservation either through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ fee-to-trust process or by direct federal legislation. If made part of the reservation, the sovereign tribal land would become exempt from local and state taxes and local planning and zoning laws.

The upcoming event is on the heels of a town hall gathering Aug. 26 at the Solvang Veterans Memorial Building sponsored by Santa Ynez Valley Concerned Citizens, Women’s Environmental Watch, Preservation of Los Olivos and Preservation of Santa Ynez.

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 400 people heard from speakers who encouraged residents to anticipate the worst and organize politically to stop the potential expansion.

In a paid advertisement for their meeting, the tribe says, “You heard the fiction, now hear the facts.” When asked to specify what statements were “fictional,” tribal spokeswoman Frances Snyder had no comment on the record.

“The issue is not housing. It is about fee to trust,” said POLO president Kathy Cleary in an email message when asked about the Chumash’s plans. “I have been called a racist, a liar, and the boy who cried wolf. Instead of my opinion, let’s look at the facts from letters by your elected officials regarding fee to trust.”
She went on to quote from four letters from federal, state and county government officials pertaining to the tribe’s previous fee-to-trust efforts.

For example, POLO quotes a letter in 2004 from U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly about another Chumash annexation proposal, in which the congressman says, “If this land is taken into trust, the local community will not be able to address or prevent any environmental impacts stemming from the proposed development.”
The quotations, which were presented at the community groups’ town hall meeting, and all the supporting documents are posted at www.polosyv.org, she said.

Although the tribe has said they don’t intend to build a casino on the agricultural parcel, which is about the size of Solvang, nothing could stop them if the land becomes part of the reservation, one of the speakers said at the town hall.
However, tribal officials have said they would not open another casino so close to the existing one, because it makes no sense economically.

A day before the Aug. 26 town hall meeting, in an invitation-only media tour of the Camp 4 property, Armenta described the tribe’s intentions to create 143 single-family residential lots on what is now a 250-acre wheat field at the northeast corner of the vast property.

Armenta said there isn’t enough room on the tribe’s current reservation, about 30 percent of which is hillside or creekbed, to accommodate the tribe’s 141 enrolled members and their approximately 500 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

On the current reservation there are about 100 homes, although not all of them are occupied by tribal members, he said.

Gerry Shepherd of Santa Ynez Valley Concerned Citizens, one of the groups that sponsored the Aug. 26 meeting, questioned the need for a town hall-style meeting if Armenta has already explained the tribe’s position and plans for the Camp 4 property during the media trip.

“What’s changed from the plans they announced at the media tour?” she said by email.

In April 2010, the tribe bought the 1,390 acres of agriculturally zoned property at the northeast corner of Highway 154 and Highway 246-Armour Ranch Road from Fess Parker Enterprises for about $40 million, leading immediately to speculation about the tribe’s plans for the property.

Before Parker died, he and the tribe discussed building a resort community there with homes, a golf course and other amenities, but that plan was shelved.
Because the Samala Showroom is part of the casino, at 3400 E. Highway 246, no one younger than 18 years old can be admitted. The showroom is on the same level as the casino’s main gambling floor, at the rear of the building.