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Casino Traffic a Worry for San Diego Supervisors
Expressing their fears that traffic generated on roads leading to the many new and planned Indian casinos in San Diego County, California would lead to congestion and other environmental problems residents of the North and East county areas voiced their concerns at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting. In response, Supervisor Pam Slater, half-jokingly, proposed that the County erect toll booths in order to pay for the improvements to roads and highways that such traffic will require.
"I don't know if it's a good idea or a bad idea," she said of toll the booths, "but it's the only one I could come up with to recoup some of the money." The projected proliferation of new tribal casinos could be the biggest threat to traffic, water and growth controls in county history. Bemoaning their lack of authority to force tribes, which are sovereign nations, to mitigate environmental impacts or assist in paying for the estimated $168 million in needed county road work, Supervisor Dianne Jacob said, "We have no leverage, no clout. The intensity of casino development impacts not only the surrounding communities but the entire region in a way we haven't seen before."
The toll-booth suggestion was put aside, but the supervisors did vote to pursue staff recommendations to work with tribes to get information and money, and to ask state and federal officials to exert influence the county lacks.
They want the governor and state attorney general to clarify what mitigation steps tribes must take. Those requirements are worded ambiguously in Gov. Gray Davis' state gambling compacts with tribes.
The board voted to make casino expansions part of the county's General Plan update, and to ask federal officials for a moratorium on local reservations acquiring more land. The tribes were not consulted about the county report. By letter they took issue with several of its findings, including expecting tribes to pay for road improvements that were needed before casino plans were announced.
Supervisor Ron Roberts acknowledged the report's one encouraging note, that the casinos would bring economic and employment benefits, although he did raise a veiled threat that lack of cooperation could lead to a loss of benefits to the tribes.
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