Judge clears the way for Lytton Band

A federal judge has cleared the way for the Lytton Band of Pomo
Indians to take control of a San Pablo casino, which in turn could
allow the tribe to develop 50 acres of land into homes for tribal
members just west of the Windsor town limits.
The decision will have no immediate impact on the proposed
Windsor project, and several legal and financial hurdles remain
before the tribe could develop the property along Windsor River
Road, which is currently owned by the tribe’s investors, a
Philadelphia gaming concern.
Tony Cohen, the attorney representing the Lytton Band, said the
tribe has no money at this time to develop the Windsor
property.
The decision last week by Judge David F. Levi in U.S. District
Court will allow the U.S. government to place the San Pablo land
into trust and cause it to become a Lytton Reservation. “For the
first time since the 1950s the Lytton Band will have land,” said
Cohen.
Once that happens, the investor will turn over the Windsor land
to the tribe, Cohen said. The tribe will then ask the U.S.
government to take the Windsor land into trust for the tribe, and
put it under federal jurisdiction. Cohen repeated earlier
assertions that there are no plans for a casino on the Windsor
property.
Federal review of the residential plan will include full
environmental reviews and public notification.
“The tribe fully intends to work with the neighbors and the
county” in developing the property, said Cohen.
Still unsettled is the legal challenge to the tribe’s federal
recognition.
Bob Crawford, a Windsor River Road neighbor and member of a
group of residents formed to oppose the residential plan, said “It
will be interesting to see how the court rules as to whether the
Lytton is a bona fide tribe.”
“We’re still watchful and waiting,” said Crawford. “I don’t
think we expected very much different … our issue of course is the
residential project they plan in Windsor … assuming it stays
residential.”
Cohen said the “case is not over as to whether the federal
government correctly recognized the tribe, although I believe it
will be over soon.” He said that there have been no other
successful challenges to tribal recognition in cases like the
Lytton Band’s.
Another neighbor, Eastside Road resident Roger Branscomb, said
“this thing is not over by a longshot.”
Branscomb started a loose-knit group called Citizens for Fair
Property Rights. “If they end up getting their casino down there,
Windsor is going to end up losing,” he said. “If they don’t get the
casino down there, they could conceivably put the casino on this
property … anything could happen.”
Once the casino land in San Pablo is put into trust, the tribe
could ask Gov. Gray Davis to form a compact allowing it to be the
first Las Vegas-style casino in the state in an urban area, with
slot machines and card games against the house.
The Lytton Band of Pomo Indians consists of 253 members, most
living close to Healdsburg near the former Lytton Rancheria in the
Alexander Valley, according to court documents.