Tribe Ups Ante in Palm Springs

Hoping to transform the city into a vast entertainment district, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is seeking permission to turn a square-mile portion of the downtown core into a multibillion-dollar complex featuring high-rises, shopping malls, restaurants, a theme park and a second casino.

The controversial development plan is expected to be submitted Wednesday to the city Planning Commission. Last week, the tribe unveiled an initiative for the November ballot that would boost payments to the state in exchange for more gambling rights, such as removing state restrictions that allow a maximum of 2,000 slot machines and two casinos per tribe.

As it stands, the 412-member Agua Caliente Band is the only tribe in the state with two casinos, including a $95-million downtown Palm Springs gambling palace that opened in November and one in Rancho Mirage. The development proposal allows for at least one more casino.

“The city should have a great run from this plan because it’s in the downtown area, and it gives the city a focus in terms of what it is we’re looking for,” Agua Caliente Chairman Richard Milanovich said in an interview.

There is no timeline for fully developing the largely vacant area known locally for decades as Section 14, or “the reservation.”

Palm Springs City Manager David Ready said, however, “If everything in the plan manifests it will be a glory day.... If only a third of it happens, it would have a huge positive impact on the entire city.”

Not everyone is as thrilled. Homeowners, hotel owners and others say the plan, which was completed eight years ago, has been kept out of the public eye by tribal leaders and city officials, and they object to its size, design and location: a place with a history of racial tension.

The 640-acre site is a short block east of Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs, and just a mile west of the city’s international airport.

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City’s OK Not Needed

City officials say the tribe is not legally obligated to seek the city’s blessings for its plan -- or even zoning changes -- because it is located on sovereign land.

But the tribe is working with the city -- and vice versa -- to maintain relations. In an internal memo to the City Council, officials said the city is processing the plan, which could reach the council in early February, so that it can become a partner with the tribe.

Critics claim that tribal leaders and city officials have the plan on a fast track even though it may affect property values of homes and bed-and-breakfast inns that now enjoy a measure of solitude and serene desert vistas.

The Agua Caliente tribe describes the plan as a vision for “a unique and cohesive district with its own identity, which is separate but linked to downtown Palm Springs.” The tribe compares it to Pleasure Island in Orlando, Fla., an entertainment complex that includes eight nightclubs and evening street parties set off by music and fireworks.

The Agua Caliente master plan is scant on details. But its stated aim is to expand the site’s existing collection of visitor attractions -- hotels, a casino and convention center -- into “a lively, large-scale resort district.”

Tribal planners said they hope to see at least two hotels and some condominium complexes developed on the site over the next five years, if the concept is approved by the city. The plan suggests that a family recreation complex, commercial centers and an entertainment project possibly including a hotel and casino could be built on the land by 2014.

Bill Gonzalez, president of the Palm Springs Allied Homeowners Assn., was among a group of residents who recently took their concerns to the city attorney.

“The attorney insisted the money generated by this project will help the city,” Gonzalez said. “He also said, ‘The tribe is a sovereign nation and there’s not much we can do about it.’

“But we say: ‘Let’s take back our city. Let’s not allow the tribe to get away with this. Let’s turn the tribe’s power and gas off if necessary.’ ”

Milanovich, the tribal chairman, dismisses his critics.

“I think people would oppose our plan no matter what it said,” he said. “There are some people who want to maintain their own little environment and not share it with anyone else. More power to them.”

Although the master plan envisions one or more additional casinos, however, the tribe has no desire to build one at this point, he said.

Thomas Davis, chief planning officer for the Agua Caliente tribe, contends that the development would redefine Palm Springs as “a significant destination for a world market” and an economic powerhouse in Southern California.

Within Palm Springs, which is facing a projected $8-million budget shortfall, Davis said, “It would increase hotel occupancy, maximize future use and development of the convention center, increase land values, and pay for infrastructure. But to develop everything envisioned would cost billions, so it isn’t going to happen overnight.”

Davis also vehemently denied that the plan has been kept secret. He said the tribe completed it in 1996 and submitted an updated draft to the city in 2002.

Doug Evans, Palm Springs’ director of planning, pointed out that the city has been “pitching the plan to encourage development of residential and resort buildings around here for over five years.

“We use it to show people what aspirations the tribe has for the area, and to give people ideas,” he said.

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Some Residents Upset

That came as distressing news to some residents who make it their business to stay abreast of potential zoning changes and development projects that could affect life in this city of 46,000 people.

Take Laverne Sprinkle, president of the board of directors of the 64-unit Villa Alejo condominium complex, which is on the northern edge of Section 14.

Leaning back on a couch in the mirrored lobby of her complex, Sprinkle fumed, “This project may be old news to them, but it’s news to us.

“Now, we want the city to step up to the plate and take into consideration the tribe’s neighbors,” she said. “With all their money, the tribe can make any of its wishes come true with the stroke of a pen, and create nightmares for us in the process.”

It is an area that has suffered its share of racial tensions. When African Americans and Latinos began moving to Palm Springs during World War II to work on nearby farms and in the emerging hospitality industry, most settled in Section 14.

Eventually, demand for affordable housing was so great that about 1,000 people, or about 10% of Palm Springs’ residents, lived in Section 14 by the early 1960s. The area had become an obstacle to downtown economic growth, however, for city leaders wanting to generate business in new hotels and restaurants.

They found their loophole in a 1959 change in federal law allowing Indian families to offer prospective tenants 99-year leases, in contrast to the month-to-month leases previously allowed. That made the area more attractive to commercial developers needing long-term security.

City and tribal leaders canceled the leases of Section 14 tenants and condemned their homes. In a report to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1966, the city reported that it had been able to “demolish, burn and clean up approximately 200 dwellings and structures.”

A later investigation by the state attorney general’s office determined that the city had not broken any laws. But it compared the removals to “a classic study in civic disregard for the rights and feelings of minority citizens.”

With the city renewing its powers of eminent domain in the area even as it steps up advertising promoting itself as a gambling mecca, critics of the plan are warning residents in and around Section 14 to prepare for the worst.

Over the last week, members of a group called Citizens for Local Government Accountability and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, which has been trying to organize Agua Caliente casino workers for years, have been telephoning homeowners and handing out fliers advising: “Make your voice heard! Tell the Planning Commission to vote no.”

On Friday, opponents of the plan purchased a full-page advertisement in the Desert Sun daily newspaper calling for community resistance.

Cheryl Schmit, a longtime critic of the Native American casino industry, supported that effort.

“It appears the city of Palm Springs has lost control,” Schmit said. “There will be an entirely disproportionate influence of casino dollars in that community.”

In an interview in his office, Mayor Ron Odon declined to take a stand on the development plan. He suggested, however, that much of the criticism is unfair.

“The work this tribe has done in the city to date has been of the highest caliber,” he said. In any case, he added, “They have the ability on their land to do whatever they want.”

“That’s fine,” countered bed-and-breakfast owner Frank Tysen. “But you, mayor, have a responsibility to stand up for Palm Springs citizens if this project threatens to alter our way of life, and not to automatically back the tribe.”

“It’s a very scary thing,” said Tysen, co-owner of the 23-unit Casa Cody Bed and Breakfast Country Inn, which is about three blocks west of the proposed development site.

“In Las Vegas, people know what they’re getting into. But a lot of people would never have bought homes and businesses here had they known they’d be living in a fun zone.”