A draft environmental report on a proposed Indian casino in unincorporated North Richmond is available for review.

The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians seeks to develop a Las Vegas-style casino complex with 2,000 slot machines on 30 acres along Richmond Parkway. There also would be poker and other table games.

The casino would be 45 feet tall with 225,000 square feet of floor space. The complex would include a 1,500-seat theater, 600-seat buffet restaurant, 250-seat entertainment lounge, 150-seat sports bar and 120-seat food court.
A parking garage would accommodate 2,250 vehicles; there would be surface parking for another 1,299.

The report, prepared by Sacramento-based Analytical Environmental Services for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, is available online and at the Richmond and San Pablo public libraries. It is also available from the federal agency's Sacramento office.

A 2,000-slot machine casino would generate the equivalent of 1,855 permanent full-time jobs in Contra Costa County with an average salary of $32,400 a year, the report found. Construction of the casino also would create many short-term jobs.

According to the report, a casino also would generate much new business for local vendors, suppliers and contractors. Effects on area housing and schools would be minor, the report found.

There will be a public hearing on the proposal Wednesday in Richmond.
The proposal enjoys the support of many North Richmond civic leaders, who say it would bring jobs and money to their economically depressed community.
But opponents across the region, including state Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia and many local officials and residents, warn a casino would bring crime, traffic, gambling addiction and other negative social consequences to the area. Others oppose gambling in general on moral grounds.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he opposes the creation of any new urban Indian casinos.

Scotts Valley tribal Chairman Don Arnold has said the tribe, which counted fewer than 200 members last year, needs the casino to become self-sufficient.
The Scotts Valley Pomo owned land in Lake County until the federal government terminated them in 1965. The tribe sued, and in 1991 the government recognized them anew along with several other tribes it had stripped of tribal status.

As a landless, yet federally recognized tribe, the Scotts Valley Pomo say they are entitled to have the federal government take the North Richmond tract into trust for them as a reservation for gaming purposes.

But that plan faces numerous hurdles. For one, the tribe must prove a historical nexus to the land. They say 18th-century Russian, Spanish and Mexican historic records and 19th-century treaties with the U.S. government show Pomo aboriginal territory extending to the San Francisco Bay. But critics, including some other tribes, say the Scotts Valley Pomo claim of a historical link to the North Richmond land is tenuous at best.

Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.
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HEARING
"Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Draft Environmental Impact Statement" is available:
Online: http://reports.analyticalcorp.net/scottsvalley/deis/default.htm
By mail: Write to John Rydzik, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2800 Cottage Way, Room W-2820, Sacramento, CA 95823 (or call 916-978-6042).
At a library: Richmond Public Library, Main Branch, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond and the San Pablo public library, 2300 El Portal Drive, Suite D, San Pablo.
To comment: Written comments must be received by April 28 and should be directed to Clay Gregory, Regional Director, Pacific Regional Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA 95825. Include name, return address and caption "DEIS Comments, Scotts Valley Casino Project" on the first page of comments.
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HEARING
• WHAT: Bureau of Indian Affairs public hearing
• WHEN: 6 p.m. Wednesday,
• WHERE: Richmond auditorium, 403