Eagle Mountain Casino Resort
Eagle Mountain Casino plans to move down from the Tule River Reservation and build a new casino near the Porterville Airport.
But the plans don’t end there. The new site will be upgraded to a casino & resort boasting a 250-room hotel, a 29,000-sq./ft. convention center, a 1,700-seat entertainment center, a wastewater treatment plant, and a new fire department.
The proposed casino resort would include an approximately 105,000 square foot casino, an approximately 250-room hotel, approximately 36,000 square feet of food and beverage facilities, administrative space, a multi-purpose events center, a conference center, and associated parking and infrastructure. Eagle Mountain Casino provides safe, reliable and comfortable bus service from Bakersfield, Shafter Wasco, Delano, Lindsay, Exeter and Visalia.
The proposed relocation comes after concerns from both casino management and the Tule River Tribe.
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The largest concern for the tribe is the amount of water consumed by the current casino, which uses up to 40,000 gallons of water a day.
There are currently 200 tribe members who can’t live on the reservation because there isn’t housing. Multiple families are forced to live in one home.
Moving the casino elsewhere could alleviate that issue by freeing up water for around 80 new homes on the reservation.
There are also plans on expanding the Tribal school site.
Expansion on the Tule Reservation has been a major hurdle because of the high granite content on the reservation. Before any construction project can begin a site needs to be leveled first, a costly endeavor ranging hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to Neil Peyron, Chairman of the Tule River Tribal Council, the reservation intends to refit the existing site instead of undertaking expensive construction projects.
“The plan is when the casino relocates, the administration, the housing authority, and our medical services will move into [the current casino site] which is bigger so we can expand our services. And the buildings down there will be used for youth services and elder services more closely related to the school and to the gymnasium like our cultural programs.”
The move could also help prevent altercations with locals. The amount of traffic the casino receives on a daily basis poses a risk to residents not only on the roads but also on private property.
Some casino goers misinterpret the reservation as a place of tourism, when in reality it’s sovereign land with its own set of laws and government. Such misunderstandings often lead to incidents of trespassing and harassment.
From the casino management side, concerns are more about profitability and safety.
Anyone who’s ever visited the Eagle Mountain Casino knows the winding road to and from the reservation can be dangerous. The casino has even riffed off the perilous journey to the slot machines by selling t-shirts that read “I survived Tule River Tribe of California Road to Eagle Mountain Casino.”
Funny, but the casino is aware of the serious danger the road holds for its clients–so much so that the casino has a strict no alcohol policy to discourage drunk driving.
Moving the casino near the Porterville airport will not only make the drive shorter and safer, but it will also allow the new casino to sell alcohol. Profits are likely to increase via the new hotel and convention center as well.
The increase in profits is not just good for the casino and its employees. A prosperous casino, means a prosperous reservation. The Tule River Tribe gets a whopping 95% of its money from casino profits, money that is used to fund all of the programs designed to support schools, the elderly, and upgrades to water treatment plants that can no longer keep up with the amount of contamination found in the reservation.
But the beneficiaries don’t end there. The city of Porterville will also get a piece of the pie.
The convention and hotel space provided by the new site could bring more consumers to the Porterville area, especially during large events like the World Ag Expo.
“We haven’t really had any opposition,” Project Manager Matt Ross explained. “Any time we have, it’s been lack of information or misinformation. Some folks were worried this may impact some of their businesses like holding weddings and things like that…And then they started looking and realized, ‘Wait, actually we can have more weddings and they can actually have a spot to stay.’ So there’s synergy rather than competition.”
Homeowners will also see benefits from the casino’s move. The new fire department on the proposed site can provide more emergency service coverage in the southwest side of Porterville and effectively lower home insurance costs in that area.
Local businesses can also rest a little easier because the new fire department will likely contain a ladder fire truck designed to reach higher floors typical of commercial buildings.
It’s a valuable asset that will keep businesses safer and potentially lower insurance costs as well.
Furthermore, the casino and resort will have a net-zero effect on the local water system because of the water treatment plant included in the project. In other words, the casino will have little to no impact on the local domestic water system because the tertiary plant will clean water from the casino to the level it can be used to irrigate local lawns and crops.
During construction, hundreds of temporary jobs will be created. And thanks to the additional facilities planned, 400 new permanent jobs will be up for grabs to staff the casino, restaurant, convention center, and hotel.
“The biggest [increase] is obviously going to be in the departments we don’t have,” explained Eagle Mountain Casino General Manager Matthew Mingrone. “I don’t have anybody to work in banquets and the convention space…Nobody to run a hotel, whether it’s front desk, management, housekeeping, supervision, engineering.”
At the moment, casino management is holding off on recruitment because there’s still a degree of red tape preventing the project from moving forward.
Just in the county level alone there are negotiations that need to be made regarding repair costs of a road that runs along the proposed site. These costs are estimated at around $10 million. The debate with the county revolves around how much of the cost will be paid by the casino and when.
Then there’s the pending approval of the gaming trust from the federal government.
Casino management hopes the project has been reviewed. But when the approval will come through is anyone’s guess, especially in a government that struggles to stay open.
Finally, the casino will have to receive approval from California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“We got our fingers crossed,” Mingrone explained. “When everything is approved and we have everything ready to go, the Tribal Council will have to go back and sit with the governor to negotiate a new compact, which is an agreement having to do with the casino.”
Construction isn’t expected to begin until Summer of 2020.
A Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) / Tribal Environmental Impact Report (TEIR) has been prepared to analyze the potential environmental consequences of the Tule River Tribe’s (Tribe) application for a proposed 40-acre fee-to-trust transfer and casino relocation project in incorporated City of Porterville, Tulare County, California approximately 15 miles west of the Tule River Tribe Reservation. The proposed trust property includes 17 parcels, bound by West Street on the west, an off-highway vehicle park (OHV) owned by the City of Porterville to the north and east, and a photovoltaic power station (solar farm) to the south. The Assessor’s parcel numbers (APNs) for the property are 302-400-001 through 302-400-017. The proposed casino resort would include an approximately 105,000 square foot casino, an approximately 250-room hotel, approximately 36,000 square feet of food and beverage facilities, administrative space, a multi-purpose events center, a conference center, and associated parking and infrastructure. The new casino resort would replace the Tribe’s existing casino, and the existing casino buildings would be converted to tribal government or service uses.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is the federal agency that is charged with reviewing and approving tribal applications to take land into federal trust status and is Lead Agency for the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Tribe expects to enter into a new Class III gaming compact with the State of California for the relocated casino. Based on the requirements of other recent Tribal-State gaming compacts in California, it is expected that the Tribal-State gaming compact will require the Tribe to serve as Lead Agency in the preparation a Tribal Environmental Impact Report (TEIR) to analyze the potential off-reservation environmental impacts of the proposed casino resort. To eliminate redundancy and reduce paperwork, the EIS and TEIR have been prepared in coordination, resulting in a joint EIS/TEIR.
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The BIA issued a Notice of Intent on December 30, 2016 which opened a 30-day public scoping period to identify potential issues, concerns, and alternatives to be considered in the EIS. The scoping period ended on January 30, 2017. A public scoping meeting was held on January 23, 2017 at the Porterville Veterans Memorial Building, 1900 W Olive Ave, Porterville, California 93257. A Scoping Report is available which describes the EIS process, explains the purpose and need for the Proposed Action, describes the Proposed Project and alternatives, and summarizes the issues identified during the scoping process. Appendices to the Scoping Report include all comment letters received by the BIA and the public hearing transcript.
A Notice of Availability for the Draft EIS was published in the Federal Register on September 21, 2018. Comments on the Draft EIS or Draft Conformity Determination were due on November 5, 2018, which was the final day of the 45-day comment period.
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The Notice of Availability of the Final EIS was published in the Federal Register and in the Porterville Recorder on May 31, 2019. The Final Conformity Determination was also issued on May 31, 2019. The 30-day waiting period ended on July 1, 2019.
On October 7, 2019, the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs signed a Record of Decision (ROD) and issued a Secretarial Determination of gaming eligibility pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act for the 40-acre Airpark Site.
For Further Information Contact: Chad Broussard, Environmental Protection Specialist, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pacific Regional Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Room W–2820, Sacramento, California 95825; telephone: (916) 978–6165; e-mail: chad.broussard@bia.gov.