Opinion: Don't believe anti-casino hype in Lytton Band land bill

If you’ve been listening to Rep. Jared Huffman recently, you’d think that his bill HR 2538 would protect the town of Windsor and Sonoma County.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Huffman’s bill would move more than 500 acres just outside of Windsor into federal trust for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians so that they can build a massive commercial development that would include a 200,000 case-a-year mega-winery, a 200-room resort hotel and more than 360 luxury homes.

It would destroy forever the quiet bucolic setting of western Windsor by creating a sovereign nation one-third the size of Windsor. The development would clear-cut 1,500 blue oak trees and use nearly 100 million gallons of water annually. The area’s land use zoning regulations would be tossed out. It’d be an ecological nightmare.

Huffman has contorted himself to find a reason to justify a bill the overwhelming majority of people in Windsor oppose. He says the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs will move this land into trust anyway, so he’s beating them to it and protecting us against a future casino.