SANTA MARIA – The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will not formally appeal a decision by the Federal Government to allow the Chumash Indian Tribe to transfer about 7 acres of land it owns into its sovereign reservation.
The federal Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs gave its second approval to the Chumash last month to annex the 6.9 acres along Highway 246 in Santa Ynez across the street from its hotel and casino.
The tribe says it wants to build a Chumash cultural center and museum along with a park and retail complex on the land.
Santa Ynez Valley opposition groups tried but failed to block the land transfer in court.
Opponents urged the County to formally appeal the annexation warning the County will lose authority over all future use of the land and any future tax revenue.
Opponents also say if the transfer were to go through nothing could stop the Tribe from building a small casino on the land, or anything else, if it wanted to.
The Board of Supervisors called a public hearing on the matter Tuesday morning in Santa Maria.
Hundreds of people were bused-in in a dramatic show of support for the Tribe and its annexation as opposed to a few dozen opponents.
"I'm ashamed to have to come up here and fend for who I am, for who our people are", said an upset Chumash Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta to the Board during a lengthy public comment period.
Armenta was also matter of fact in urging Supervisors not to appeal BIA approval of the 6.9 acre annexation onto the Tribe's growing reservation.
"To appeal this decision is to basically say, our tribe does not exist", Armenta told the Board,
"how dare you question my parents, my grandparents?"
Board Chair Doreen Farr, in whose district the Chumash Reservation sits, took exception with Armenta's claim that she called the public hearing at the beck and call of a small minority of influential Santa Ynez Valley Residents.
"I am very respectful of your history and your culture, and the work for your people", Supervisor Farr told Armenta, "but I do feel that these issues raise very serious potential land use and fiscal impacts, and despite what you said, I have heard from so many people, not just a few."
Tribal leaders said the museum will be a benefit for everyone not just the Chumash.
"Today we have the opportunity to share and celebrate our culture with others with pride", added Chumash tribal leader Kenneth Kahn.
Other valley residents who spoke during the public hearing say it's not the museum that concerns them.
"I want you to understand that we in the valley are not opposed to the tribe, we are opposed to gambling in the valley", said Solvang's mayor Jim Richardson, "many of us our afraid that reservation expansion means gambling expansion."
Other valley residents urging the County to appeal the transfer say tribal annexation violates the County's practice of supporting the local "Community Plan", a carefully worded blueprint that governs land use policy.
"What they ask here is to remove parcels from your jurisdiction, remove parcels from the discussion with the local community which you have demonstrated over the years you value, in a pluralistic manner, to determine the future of a community", said valley resident CJ Jackson, "if you take all of the parcels currently purchased, and now we have two large ones on track to go to Fee to Trust, we are talking about a highly visible and about 70 plus percent of the remaining commercial real-estate available to be developed in Santa Ynez."
"This is will impact the character of the community", Jackson told the Board, "thus the community as a whole should be involved in this discussion."
Chumash Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta told the Board the overwhelming show of support at the public hearing represents the true majority in the valley.
"We will be heard, and its obvious", Armenta told the Board pointing to the window, "you should all take a look out that window, there's not ten people, there's not 20, there's over 400 people here today, I could have brought 4,000, and we all would have filled out speaker slips."
After more than two hours of public comment, the Board was poised to take its decision on the appeal into closed session.
But Fourth District Supervisor Joni Gray made a motion to decline filing any appeal with the BIA.
The Board then voted 3-2 to support Gray's motion, with Supervisors Doreen Farr and Janet Wolf voting no.
The deadline to file appeals of the Chumash Tribe's Fee-to-Trust transfer is July 17.
