[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 151 (Friday, August 6, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47622-47623]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-19186]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Cloverdale Rancheria 
of Pomo Indians' Proposed 70-Acre Trust Acquisition and Resort Casino 
Project, Sonoma County, CA

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs (BIA) as lead agency, with the Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo 
Indians (Tribe), National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California Department of 
Transportation (Caltrans), Sonoma County, and City of Cloverdale as 
cooperating agencies, intends to file a Draft Environmental Impact 
Statement (DEIS) with the EPA for the Tribe's proposed 70 
acre Fee-to-Trust and Resort Casino Project to be located within Sonoma 
County, California, and that the DEIS is now available for public 
review and comment. This notice provides a 75-day public comment period 
and thereby grants an automatic 30-day extension to the normal 45-day 
public comment period.

[[Page 47623]]


DATES: The DEIS will be available for public comment beginning August 
6, 2010. Written comments on the DEIS must arrive by October 20, 2010. 
A public hearing will be held on Thursday, September 16, 2010 from 6 
p.m. to 9 p.m. or until the last public comment is received.

ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry written comments to Dale Morris, 
Regional Director, Pacific Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2800 
Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA 95825. The public hearing will be held at: 
Cloverdale City Citrus Fairgrounds, Citrus Fair Drive Number 1, Tea 
Room, Cloverdale, CA 95425. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for locations 
where the DEIS will be available for review and instructions for 
submitting comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Rydzik, (916) 978-6051.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Tribe has requested the BIA to acquire 
six parcels, totaling 70 acres of land, on which the Tribe 
proposes to develop a destination resort casino. Approximately 2 acres 
of the site are located within the City of Cloverdale, California, 
while the remaining 68 acres are within unincorporated Sonoma County, 
California. The project site is situated immediately east of Highway 
101 and borders Asti Road. Regional access to the project site is 
provided by Highway 101, with local access provided by South Cloverdale 
Boulevard via Highway 101. The proposed trust parcels partially overlap 
with the Tribe's historic Rancheria location.
    The proposed action consists of: The fee-to-trust transfer of the 
project site; Federal review (by NIGC) of the development and 
management contract; and development of the proposed project. The 
proposed project includes: An 80,000 square-foot casino; 287,000 
square-foot hotel with 244 rooms; 48,600 square-foot convention center; 
28,100 square-foot entertainment center; 3,400 garage and surface 
parking spaces; and other ancillary facilities. A 20,000 square-foot 
tribal government building is proposed on the south end of the project 
site. Buildings would have a height of up to two stories above grade 
with the exception of the hotel and parking garage which would have a 
height of up to five stories above grade.
    The BIA, serving as the lead agency for compliance with the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), published a Notice of Intent 
To Prepare the EIS for the proposed action in the Federal Register on 
July 7, 2008. (See 73 FR 38466). In addition to the Tribe, NIGC, EPA, 
Caltrans, Sonoma County, and the City of Cloverdale have accepted 
invitations to be cooperating agencies, as entities having jurisdiction 
by law or special expertise relevant to environmental issues.
    BIA held a public scoping meeting on July 30, 2008, at the 
Cloverdale Citrus Fairgrounds in the City of Cloverdale, California. 
From that scoping meeting, a range of project alternatives were 
developed and subsequently analyzed in the DEIS, including: (1) 
Alternative A--Proposed Action; (2) Alternative B--Reduced Hotel and 
Casino; (3) Alternative C--Reduced Casino; (4) Alternative D--Casino 
Only; (5) Alternative E--Commercial Retail-Office Space; and (6) 
Alternative F--No Action Alternative. Environmental issues addressed in 
the DEIS include land resources; water resources; air quality; 
biological resources; cultural and paleontological resources; 
socioeconomic conditions; transportation; land use and agriculture; 
public services; noise; hazardous materials; visual resources; 
environmental justice; growth inducing effects, indirect effects; 
cumulative effects; and mitigation measures.

Directions for Submitting Comments

    Please include your name, return address, and the caption: ``DEIS 
Comments, Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians' Fee-to-Trust and Resort 
Casino Project,'' on the first page of your written comments and submit 
comments to the BIA address listed in the ADDRESSES section of this 
notice.

Availability of DEIS

    The DEIS will be available to view at Cloverdale Regional Library, 
401 North Cloverdale Boulevard, Cloverdale, CA 95425 and at the Santa 
Rosa Central Library, 211 E Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. General 
information for the Cloverdale Regional Library can be obtained by 
calling (707) 894-5271 and the Santa Rosa Central Library by calling 
(707) 545-0831. An electronic version of the DEIS can also be viewed 
at: http://www.cloverdalerancheria.com/eis.html. To obtain a compact 
disk copy of the DEIS, please provide your name and address in writing 
or by voicemail to the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this notice. Individual paper copies of the DEIS 
will be provided upon payment of applicable printing expenses by the 
requestor for the number of copies requested.

Public Comment Availability

    Written comments, including the names and addresses of respondents, 
will be available for public review at the BIA address shown in the 
ADDRESSES section, during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, except holidays. Before including your address, 
phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information 
in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--
including your personal identifying information--may be made publicly 
available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold 
your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot 
guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Authority

    This notice is published pursuant to section 1503.1 of the Council 
of Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500 through 1508) 
implementing the procedural requirements of NEPA of 1969, as amended 
(42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.), Department of the Interior Manual (516 DM 1-
6) and is in the exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant 
Secretary--Indian Affairs by 209 DM 8.

    Dated: July 20, 2010.
Donald Laverdure,
Deputy Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2010-19186 Filed 8-5-10; 8:45 am]
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