The issue is not whether a new casino/hotel/retail complex should replace the existing Soboba casino, but where it should be built, say opponents of a plan to annex 535 acres to the Soboba reservation.

Opponents this week urged the Hemet City Council to oppose the annexation proposal and to register their objections at an Aug. 5 public meeting. The meeting — at 5 p.m. on the second floor of the Hemet Public Library — will allow individuals and public officials an opportunity to express their views on the draft environmental impact statement prepared by federal agencies to address issues involved with the proposal.

The Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians has applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to move the reservation boundary to the edge of land the Sobobas already own adjacent to the reservation.

If the land is added to the reservation, the Sobobas plan to build a casino and hotel, an RV park, and retail outlets, among other facilities along either side of Lake Park Drive at Soboba Road.

Members of the Hemet City Council did not commit to testifying at the meeting, but indicated a willingness to respond to the draft environmental impact statement by the mid-September deadline.

The San Jacinto City Council has already asked the Sobobas to withdraw their application.

San Jacinto Mayor Dale Stubblefield said city officials do not object to the Sobobas’ desire to replace their existing casino, only to the place they want to put it.

The site is adjacent to several existing neighborhoods, including two mobile home parks.

Building the casino on what is now a golf course with a clubhouse/banquet room will disrupt the lives of those already living in the area, Stubblefield said.

“It just doesn’t work,” Stubblefield said.

Tish Arciniega expressed similar sentiments when she addressed the Hemet City Council meeting this week.

“It would be encapsulating the residents up there in a reservation,” Arciniega said.

The residents of the existing neighborhoods would have to rely on the willingness of the Sobobas to keep routes into and out of their neighborhoods open and, once the roads are on the reservation, there is no way to enforce preannexation agreements, including rights-of-access, she said.

“They are a sovereign nation,” Arciniega said. “They’ll have the right to cut off public access.”

Even a pledge to mitigate the effects of a casino/hotel complex will have no force under the law, she said. “It will no longer be U.S. land. Mitigation plans are totally at their discretion.”

Like Stubblefield, Arciniega said she and other residents of the existing neighborhoods do not object to the construction of a casino/hotel complex, only to its being built adjacent to the neighborhoods.

Among the effects of the proposed project that give residents concern, said Arciniega, are increased traffic in an area that already sees congestion when the existing casino and entertainment arena host such special events as concerts by well-known entertainers; increased noise; increased light pollution and air pollution; and increased crime, among other issues.

Stubblefield said the draft environmental statement, which was written after a January public comment meeting, seems incomplete.

Arciniega said she is concerned that a number of issues remain unexamined.

The draft environmental impact statement can be read online at http://team.entrix.com/

clientsite/soboba.nsf.

While some opponents who testified or wrote letters during the earlier comment period cited the potential impact on property values as well, Arciniega said that is not the issue for many residents.

“If you’re in it for the long haul, that is not an issue,” she said. “It’s not value, but lifestyle.”

She said she moved to the neighborhood for the quiet that comes from living in a relatively sparsely populated area adjacent to a golf course, a quiet that will be lost if a casino is built next to her neighborhood.

Soboba spokesman Mike Hiles declined to comment on specifics of the draft environmental  impact statement, but urged those interested in the issue to make their views known during the Aug. 5 meeting.