The Soboba Indian tribe’s proposal to annex more than 500 acres and build a new casino-hotel near their existing Soboda Casino complex has some San Jacinto residents worried their neighborhoods could be swallowed into a zone devoid of public services.

And recent shootouts between local sheriff’s deputies and alleged criminals hiding on the Soboba reservation have apparently given residents concern. At one point last year, a union representing Riverside County sheriff’s deputies declared the reservation and its existing casino unsafe.

“We’ve done a lot of extensive study on this, and everywhere they put a casino in the crime rate goes up and the community goes downhill,” David Christian, a member of a group called Save Our Communities.

“Like the one in San Bernardino. That neighborhood turned into a ghetto, just about. It’s not the neighborhood it used to be.”

Tribal leaders and gambling promoters told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that the new complex would create more jobs and boost the local economy.

The Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians already operates the Soboba Casino, 2,000 slot machines, over 20 table games, two restaurants, a 12,000-seat entertainment pavilion and one huge sports lounge” — on its reservation about a mile from the proposed development.’

Now the tribe wants to annex non-reservation land that it owns along Soboba Road near Lake Park Drive into federal, fee to trust” status, adding to the more than 3,000-acre reservation.

In trust, the land is held by the U.S. government on behalf of the tribe, while the tribe controls the land’s use.

The proposed 729,500-square-foot casino-hotel complex would include a 300-room hotel, casino, restaurants, convention center, events arena, retail establishments and a parking structure.

“The key issue is the ownership transfer of U.S. land to tribal land, which would isolate us,” Tish Arciniega, another member of Save Our Communities, told CNS. “It will create islands. We will be embedded in the reservation. We will be surrounded by tribal lands.”

Asked about possible public safety concerns, Arciniega referred the topic to public safety agencies and returned to Advertisement
the issue of land ownership transfer.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has had disputes with Soboba leaders about public safety and access on the Soboba reservation in the recent past. The tribe and the Sheriff’s Department have also engaged in summit discussions and found ways to cooperate.

A Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman today referred questions about the proposed land annex and casino-hotel complex to sheriff’s administration officials.

The Soboba tribal response to public concern about the new gambling complex has been restrained, and a tribal lawyer described it as a relocation of the casino with no expansion of gaming.

Back in the neighborhoods that could be affected by annexation and a new casino-hotel complex, Christian said gambling traffic is already a problem in the area where he and Arciniega live, north of the existing casino and off Soboba Road.

“There are three senior communities up here and when there’s functions going on at the casino, an ambulance can’t get in. They have to send a helicopter,” Christian told CNS. “That’s with the existing casino. If they build another one it’s going to be worse.”

If the land in question gets deeded to the Soboba tribe, Christian said he and his neighbors should no longer have to pay taxes.

Courtesy. My Valley News

Photo Credits. Soboba Casino