Big businesses have big impacts on the communities in which they operate — a fact that has become abundantly clear to Santa Ynez Valley residents. Around here, as businesses and impacts go, they don’t come any bigger than the Chumash Casino Resort.

The tribe is back in the news on two fronts — its officials want to annex the so-called Camp 4 property at the northeast corner of Highways 246 and 154, and to expand liquor sales at the casino.

The tribe doesn’t want to talk about its plans for Camp 4, but it has already tried in a couple of ways to get started on making the property part of its reservation. As we’ve said before, the tribe should stop this effort. There is no valid reason for the property to become another large chunk of the Valley that is not subject to local government regulations and requirements.

This is 1,400 acres, as big as Solvang, and developing so much property in the rural eastern end of the Valley, without any restrictions from Santa Barbara County’s planning rules, would cause irreparable impacts.

As for expanded liquor sales at the casino, we continue to believe that it should be held to the same standards as other restaurants, hotels, tasting rooms and other businesses that serve alcohol.

However, size does matter, and no other single establishment in the Valley has so many patrons. And those patrons leave the casino and drive on public highways.

The Board of Supervisors let us down Tuesday when they dropped the county’s protest to the license expansion. With the greater size of its patron base, the tribe owes the Valley a greater responsibility — and the supervisors could have imposed more conditions. Without the board’s protest, state approval of the license expansion seems certain.

As a business, the tribe wants to expand sales of alcohol beyond its fine-dining Willows restaurant on the casino’s third floor to include the buffet restaurant next door and the Samala Showroom when banquets are served there. That makes sense from their business standpoint.

However, Sheriff Bill Brown also let us down by not recommending more conditions than he did.

We would like to see written requirements, with measurable results, that the tribe does everything in its power to limit drunken driving.
Conditions should require the tribe to document a plan with the Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol that it is doing its part, every night and every day.

The casino has an excellent security operation, but these employees should be required to identify inebriated patrons as they are leaving the complex and maintain facilities where those patrons can wait until they sober up. If those customers insist on getting behind the wheel, the security employees should be required to call the California Highway Patrol, every time, to report the person’s name and driver’s license number. If tipsy patrons knew the CHP would be alerted, they would be more inclined to stay sober.

In a more proactive way, the tribe should also be required to launch a significant public-relations effort at the casino to combat drunken driving.

As a business, the tribe is entitled to seek permission for expansion; as a member of its community, it should want to minimize those impacts.
Copyright 2011 Santa Ynez Valley News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 
Posted in Editorial on Thursday, July 7, 2011 12:00 am