Let’s face it. Big businesses usually have big impacts on the communities in which they operate — a fact that has become abundantly clear to Santa Ynez Valley residents.

And, as businesses and impacts go, they don’t come any bigger than the Chumash Casino and Hotel — a fact made abundantly clear at this week’s Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting, at which the board split but ultimately dropped a protest against the tribe’s application to expand liquor sales on the casino/hotel property.

In a bit of a surprise — especially for the county’s meeting agenda planners, who had set aside an hour for discussion of the liquor license issue — only a handful of valley folk attended the meeting. One critic of the tribe said the small turnout was because most valley residents felt it was a “done deal.”

We respect anyone’s right to an opinion, but it’s far more likely the turnout was the result of people understanding that, like other businesses in the valley, the tribe should have the right to do business the way it chooses to, as long as it’s within the rules.

As expected, critics raised the issue of public safety in the valley if the tribe’s liquor license is expanded. Sheriff Bill Brown explained that budget cuts make extra patrols in that area unlikely.

A greater law enforcement presence probably isn’t necessary, if certain steps are taken. The tribe has one of the more aggressive and alert security operations on the Central Coast.

If the tribe will couple that security operation with an internal public relations campaign against drunken driving, there shouldn’t be a problem. If there is, we are fairly certain regular law enforcement agencies can be counted on to help out.

We’ve editorialized in the past about the tribe’s intentions to seek expansion of liquor sales at the casino, and we continue to believe they should be held to the same standards as other restaurants, hotels, tasting rooms, etc., that serve alcoholic beverages.

Size is important, of course, but it shouldn’t be the defining factor. In that context, the tribe’s permit requests — of any kind — should be viewed in the same light as requests from other local businesses.

But with such equality comes a certain level of responsibility, and in that context, the sheer mass of the casino operation is a significant factor, and deserves special attention.

If the tribe gains the right to expand liquor sales, it must take the aforementioned steps that would result in a higher level of DUI enforcement on the roads on or around the reservation. There would need to be special collaboration with the Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol for development of appropriate strategies to mitigate what would almost certainly be a special situation.

The tribe’s onsite security operation can ramp up efforts to identify inebriated patrons as they are leaving the complex, and report them to the Sheriff’s Department and CHP when those patrons get behind the wheel. That, along with the significant public-relations effort at the casino to combat drunken driving, should be sufficient.

These are the same general standards other bars and restaurants are held to — and fairly common-sense approaches to known problems — but they are steps that must be taken to protect those outside the bar, restaurant or casino who come into harm’s way because of impaired drivers.

The underlying animosity between the Chumash and some valley residents has a long history. But that should not prevent local government from giving the casino and its owners the same consideration they would offer other businesses in the valley.