The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians is seeking to expand the liquor license at its Chumash Casino Hotel and Resort.

Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta said the application to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is a request to allow alcohol to be served in the casino’s showroom, two of its public dining establishments, and the hotel on the Santa Ynez reservation.

“There will be no sales, service or consumption of alcoholic beverages in the Samala Showroom when Class II gaming (bingo) is in process,” Armenta said in a written statement. “However, alcoholic beverage sales, service and consumption shall be allowed in the Samala Showroom when restaurant-style meals are provided for special events.”

No sales, service or consumption of alcoholic beverages would be allowed on the gaming floor or in the Chumash Café, he said.

The Santa Barbara County sheriff is “neutral” on the expansion issue, a spokesman said, but the citizen group POLO is promising an active campaign against it.

The Chumash application, filed May 28 and posted on May 29, is a request for a “premises to premises transfer” to expand the “type 47” general restaurant license for the Willows Restaurant to include the Creekside Buffet and the adjacent hotel, said ABC spokesman John Carr.

The Willows and the buffet are adjacent restaurants one floor above the main casino. The Samala Showroom is on the same level as the gambling floor but at the rear of the building.

June 29 is the deadline for public comments on the application.

Comments can be sent to Leslie Pond, district administrator, ABC Ventura district office, 1000 S. Hill Road, Suite 310, Ventura, 93003. The office can also be reached by calling 289-0100.

The existing “type 47” license “authorizes the sale of beer, wine and distilled spirits for consumption on the licensed premises,” according to ABC.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown has not yet read the application but is aware the tribe is seeking to increase where alcohol can be sold and consumed a the casino, said his spokesman, Drew Sugars.

In a recent meeting with tribal leaders, Brown expressed his concerns over the increased chance of drunken driving and how to mitigate that possibility in the name of public safety, Sugars said Friday.

“At this point, he’s not opposing it or supporting it,” Sugars said. “He is neutral.”

Presently, the tribe holds separate ABC licenses for the Willows, hotel room mini bars and the hotel’s Nojoqui Lounge.

The application for the Willows Restaurant license was approved in February 2004 despite protests from the public. The license includes more than a dozen conditions, including specific hours for alcohol sales and restriction of sales and consumption of alcohol to the restaurant. The application process took more than a year and a half and delayed opening of the restaurant by several months.

In 2008, the tribe sought to consolidate the three licenses under one license, but those plans were shelved.

With the latest attempt to change the status of licensed alcohol sales, a Santa Ynez Valley community group that has been a consistent critic of the casino has declared their opposition to the application.

Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO) said a written protest campaign to the application is being organized.

“The community is extremely alarmed over change of venue or expansion of alcohol sales at the Chumash Casino and Resort because of the harm to public health and safety,” POLO president Kathy Cleary said.

Two years ago, POLO and Preservation of Santa Ynez (POSY) formally requested an ABC investigation into crime statistics from the Sheriff’s Department into “incidents that further jeopardize the health and safety of the surrounding community” that “should be considered a public nuisance and should be grounds for revoking the current alcohol license.”

POLO wants to know why questions on public safety and alcohol-related criminal activity went unanswered in 2008 and why alcohol sales are still allowed at all at the casino and resort based on those concerns, Cleary said.