WINCHESTER - Mini-Nashville, West Coast style, may be in the works for the San Jacinto Valley, but the timeline depends on Congress.
While in the early stages, the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians has plans to put a hotel and casino near the town. The county wants that to be a catalyst for tourist growth on the west side of Diamond Valley Lake.
Both the tribe and county officials discussed their plans at a Winchester Homeowners Association meeting Thursday night. The more than 100 attendees expressed concerns from sewer use to security.
In 2003, the tribe acquired 128 acres at the intersection of Domenigoni Parkway and Winchester Road west of Hemet as settlement with the Metropolitan Water District in a decades-long water dispute. To make that land part of the tribe's reservation, it will need an act of Congress to avoid a lengthy process through the Interior Department, said Andrew Masiel, tribal administrator.
If all goes as planned, that same act will allow gaming on the land. Tribal officials are planning to go to Washington, D.C., in February or March to work on the bill.
Because the tribe cannot yet access the land, design plans remain ideas. Soboba Tribal Council Chairman Robert Salgado told the group he envisions a 24-hour operation with 300 hotel suites and 2,000 employees. The complex might include activities that tie in with the lake, such as a water park, a bowling alley and a theater.
The Soboba band already owns a casino on reservation lands near San Jacinto, and Salgado said he is not yet sure if that would close when the new one opens.
County officials have worked with the tribe since the settlement. Riverside County Supervisor Jim Venable said they have ideas of making the strip from Winchester to Temecula a country-and-western Mecca. On June 4, the county will host business people from Nashville and other areas to promote the land around the lake.
"I think it's going to be a great shot in the arm," Venable said. "We need this casino to be our anchor for our Branson."