The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday not to appeal the annexation of 6.9 acres of land into the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ reservation, but opponents in the community indicated they are likely to file one.
Chumash leaders say they plan to build a museum, cultural center and gift shop on the land, which is adjacent to the tribe’s reservation along Highway 246 in the Santa Ynez Valley.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the tribe’s request to move the parcel into federal trust status in 2005, which the county didn’t appeal.
Local organizations, including the community group Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO), have been involved in litigation to stop it ever since, but the Department of the Interior’s Board of Indian Appeals upheld the move in June.
The action would remove the parcel from county and state jurisdiction, and the appeal period is open until July 17.
A 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case, Carcieri v. Salazar, upheld that only Indian tribes under federal jurisdiction — including the Chumash — were eligible to have trust transfers.
With the land transferred to a trust, the county loses out on millions of dollars of potential property taxes, and loses the power of developmental review, said Dennis Bozanich, assistant to the county executive officer.
Tribal land has environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act instead of the California Environmental Quality Act, and public review through the tribal government instead of the local government.
The 3-2 vote by the Board of Supervisors came after hours of public comment and discussion, with tribal members supporting the federal decision and some local residents asking for an appeal.
Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr, whose district includes the reservation, say she believes the tribe’s plans for this parcel can be accomplished through the county’s land-use process. When a parcel is taken into trust and annexed into the reservation, future development is not subject to county review.
Had the tribe not been so financially successful with its gaming operations, there may be a need for a trust, she said. Coming out of another set of budget cuts, she said it was clear the county cannot afford the loss of potential tax revenues, which would increase exponentially if the state gaming compact is expanded to trust properties such as this, she said.
She took into account the pending application for a 5.8-acre fee-to-trust transfer and the 1,400-acre Camp 4 parcel going through a federal legislative process to be placed in a trust. The Chumash say they plan to build housing for tribe members on that land, purchased in 2010 from the late Fess Parker.
The Santa Ynez Valley’s Community Plan has goals to maintain the rural character and agricultural tradition of the valley and oppose the loss of jurisdictional authority over valley parcels, which Farr also cited in her request to appeal the federal trust designation.
Supervisor Janet Wolf agreed with her, saying the citizen opposition and adverse financial impacts to the county were reason enough to appeal.
Supervisors Joni Gray, Steve Lavagnino and Salud Carbajal disagreed, voting not to appeal the decision.
Half the county – between Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Los Padres National Forest – is already federal land, Gray noted. Lavagnino said the tribe followed all the rules for the process to buy property and move it into the reservation, and although the county could lose some property-tax revenues, museums are already exempt from those taxes.
Lavagnino said there’s no question in his mind that local organizations will appeal the trust, as they have been involved in related litigation for years.
Sam Cohen, government affairs and legal officer for the Chumash, said the tribe has been fighting for the federal trust and its museum project for 12 years. The museum, interpretive park, gift shop and parking lot would be consistent with current county zoning and still undergo levels of review, he said.
“To appeal this decision is to basically say our tribe does not exist,” Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta told the board. “How dare you question my parents, my grandmother, my grandfather, my parents’ parents? It’s embarrassing. I’m ashamed to come up here and fend for who I am, for who my people are.”
Tribal members have already collected historical materials, commissioned paintings and created replicas for museum exhibits, but they’re sitting in storage rooms instead of on display, tribal secretary/treasurer Kenneth Kahn said. The museum will be a community asset, educating the next generation of Chumash and the community at large about the history and culture of the tribe, he said.
“People say we have everything, we have money — our heart is the land, that’s what we want,” Chumash member Elaine Schneider said.
Though the property was bought and paid for, it isn’t home until the tribe can annex it into the reservation, she added.
The trust was also supported by COLAB — the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business — and the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association, with representatives asking the county to respect the tribal leadership as a government.
The Chumash casino alone is a huge economic engine in the county, providing hundreds of jobs and revenues for the region, said Joe Armendariz of the Taxpayers Association.
The possibility of 5.8-acre and 1,400-acre properties being transferred to trusts was on opponents’ minds Tuesday, given the lack of county review of future development projects.
Solvang Mayor Jim Richardson said his constituents are opposed to gambling in the valley, and fear the fee-to-trust transfer is a move to expand gambling.
Valley residents and business owners said the Chumash could build their museum while the land is still under county jurisdiction but haven’t done so, and the 6.9-acre fee-to-trust process could set a precedent for other tribe-owned parcels. Some complained about the inequality of development standards between tribal lands and lands within the county jurisdiction, and some worried that the tribe’s plans for the land could change.
The Santa Ynez Valley Concerned Citizens was organized in 2000 specifically to respond to fee-to-trust issues, and a coalition has formed between the Santa Ynez Valley Alliance, the Santa Barbara County Action Network, Citizens Planning Association and Montecito Association to advocate keeping county jurisdiction of the 1,400 acres for Camp 4.
The tribe proposes building housing on a small portion of the property, but as with the other properties, local opponents are concerned the plans could change without any local review.
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.