TRINIDAD RANCHERIA HOTEL

Overview: HARP originated in response to “rumors” that the Trinidad Rancheria was proposing to build a six-story, 100-room hotel development next to its Cher-ai Heights Casino on Rancheria lands on the geologically fragile bluff above Trinidad Bay. All HARP members believed then and continue to believe that a structure of this size (or the slightly smaller current 5+ story design) is completely incompatible with the natural landscape of Trinidad Bay and its scenic values. Because funding for the hotel has been secured in the form of a guaranteed loan from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), construction of the hotel is viewed as a federal action which has triggered preparation of an Environmental Assessment by BIA and requires a finding by the California Coastal Commission that the proposed hotel project is consistent with California’s Coastal Act prepared in response to the federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. Reference documents associated with the Hotel Project can be uploaded by clicking on colored text in the narrative below.

Status Update (April 16, 2023):

On 18 July 2022, the Trinidad Rancheria submitted a document to the Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission indicating that they had drilled six wells on Rancheria property. According to dry season pump tests, these wells collectively produced 13.5 pgm, more than adequate to support the estimates maximum demand (9.7 gpm) of the proposed hotel. The Executive Director has not yet responded to this newly submitted document.

Status Update (October 30, 2020):

On 13 August 2020, the BIA released its final signed FONSI determination for the proposed Trinidad Rancheria Hotel. Exhibits attached to the final FONSI include Comments (p. 1-206), Response to Comments (p. 207-250), and Mitigation Program (p. 263-270). All Exhibits and the finally EA are currently available as a single 882 p file from the Trinidad Rancheria website. In a letter dated 10 September 2020, the BIA informed the Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission (CCC) that the Rancheria, in the absence of a water supply commitment from the City of Trinidad (see Trinidad Water Supply), had established that its two wells provided an adequate source of supply for the proposed hotel, along with possible trucking of water and/or drilling of an additional well. On September 11, 2020, HARP issued a Notice of Appeal of the final signed FONSI determination. On October 19, 2020, HARP provided comments (as well as numerous supporting attachments) to the Executive Director of the CCC concerning the the Rancheria’s proposal to use water from two wells to support the needs of the proposed hotel. Additional comments were submitted by a large number of local community members. HARP believed that it would be unlikely that the Executive Director would conclude that the Rancheria has established that it has a suitable water supply for the proposed hotel and will particularly object to the proposal for trucking water when wells have inadequate supply.

The Executive Director of the CCC in fact found that the Rancheria/BIA had not provided an adequate basis from which to conclude that the Rancheria’s two wells, with trucking as needed, would provide an adequate source of supply for the hotel. In a letter of October 30, 2020 sent to the BIA, the Executive Director identified several additional information needs: (a) dry weather pump testing for the two proposed wells, and possibly additional well(s), that would indicate a supply adequate to support the hotel at 100% capacity; (b) Information on “Location, yield, drawdown extent and recharge potential, and cones of depression associated with all proposed wells..”; and (c) “Evaluation of the potential coastal resource-related effects of the wells, including effects from a third well once its location is identified”, including possible effects on nearby McConnahas Mill Creek,

Status Update (March 20, 2020):

On 06 March 2020, the BIA released a FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact) along with a Final Environmental Assessment, comments submitted on  the draft EA, BIA response to comments and supporting Appendixes and documents. Of particular interest are the Trinidad Area Freeway Master Plan Study Report (2014), Trinidad Traffic Impact Analysis (2019) and a new Appendix H, Limited Evaluation of Water Supply (assessment of production from two wells drilled on Rancheria properties). The FONSI contains no table of contents, making it exceptionally difficult to navigate, but we have developed a simple Table of Contents to simplify assessment of the documents. The entire FONSI/Final EA package can (currently) be downloaded from the Trinidad Rancheria Website. Comments on the FONSI/Final EA package are due to BIA by 20 March 2020.   

To our knowledge, the BIA/Rancheria have not yet provided the California Coastal Commission (CCC) with documentation supporting the existence of a suitable supply of water for the proposed hotel, the “condition” of the favorable CCC Consistency Determination of September 2019 (see Current Status (November 2019, below). The City of Trinidad has recently been developing draft water connection policies to aid in decision-making regarding whether or not additional users can be added to their water system. These policies establish priorities for new service connections in recognition of the limited “surplus” water production (approximately 48,000 gpd) from the Trinidad Treatment Plant.

The Final EA states that the anticipated average water needs of the proposed 100 room hotel would be 9,800 gallons per day (gpd) assuming 70% occupancy, or a maximum of 14,000 gpd at full occupancy. If the City of Trinidad were to supply the Rancheria with the total amount of water required by the hotel, it would account account for from 24% (average) -34% (maximum) of the total available water surplus (after accounting for 15% system water loss). Trinidad water policies will not be adopted until April 2020 at the earliest and it is by no means evident that that City could honor a water request this large given higher priority needs within and near the City; honoring the Rancheria’s request would require a special “exception” if the current draft policies were adopted.

Appendix H of the FONSI/Final EA package provides an assessment of the potential production of water from two wells drilled on Rancheria property. Well #1 (“Loui’s property”), located north of the Rancheria administrative buildings above Scenic Drive, has a projected long-term production of just 1 gallon per minute (gpm). Well #2 (“Sundberg’s property”), located below Scenic Drive and at lower elevation than the Rancheria’s leach fields, has a projected long-term production of 5-6 gpm. Together, the two wells could therefore produce 8,640 - 10,080 gpd, close to the hotel’s average need but not sufficient to satisfy the hotel’s projected water needs at full capacity. According to Appendix H, water was first encountered at well #2 at 12 feet below surface grade (bsg) with static water level at 16 feet bsg. During relatively sustainable pumping tests, water levels were at 20-25 feet bsg. Not mentioned in Appendix H is that Well #2 would be regarded as a “shallow well” with high probability of surface water contamination, especially given the upslope existence of a leach field septic system supporting a 100 room hotel, and would generally not be considered suitable for a public water supply in California. Instead, for groundwater sources used for public water supplies in California (which rely on American Water Works Standards): “All wells shall be sealed to a 50‑ft. (15.2‑m) depth or more”; i.e., water should be drawn from depths exceeding 50 feet to avoid contamination by surface waters. It thus appears to HARP that it remains premature to conclude that the Rancheria has evidence of a suitable water supply to serve the proposed hotel. It is uncertain what if any action the CCC will take given this new information concerning availability of water to serve the proposed Rancheria hotel.

Also related to the two wells, there is also no mention in the Final EA of obligatory water treatment, water testing or water quality standards that would apply to these wells if they were used as a source of supply. We believe that if water were supplied from wells on Rancheria properties, it would have to have to be treated and regularly monitored so as to meet federal regulatory standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Absence of a consideration of these topics in the Final EA seems a very serious deficiency which absolutely must be addressed. If the Rancheria’s hotel is built, members of the public staying there must be certain that water is safe for human consumption and use.

According to a recent North Coast Journal article (and page 2-3 of the Final EA), the Rancheria would rely on trucked water to augment its apparent well water supply, as needed, if the City cannot provide all required water or the shortfall from the wells. (It is not clear that the traffic impacts of such trucking have been evaluated in the Final EA.) In this same article, a Rancheria spokesperson stated that construction could begin in the next two months and that the hotel could be open for business in summer 2021.

On 20 March 2020, the law firm Green Fire submitted comments on the Final EA/FONSI on behalf of HARP. Also, the Trinidad City Manager submitted comments on behalf of the City of Trinidad and also included numerous comments from local citizens.

          
Current Status (November 2019): On 22 August 2019, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) formally granted conditional approval for the Trinidad Rancheria’s proposal to construct a five-story hotel adjacent to its existing casino. At a September 2019 meeting in Eureka, CCC members narrowly (5-4) agreed that the proposed structure would not have adverse visual impacts. This vote was in opposition to the Staff’s assessment that the proposed hotel 5-story hotel was not consistent with coastal values and could be made compatible with visual surroundings only if it were reduced to no more than 40’ in height (see original Staff Report). The CCC determination of Consistency with the Coastal Act was conditioned on the following: “Prior to construction, the BIA shall provide evidence that the City of Trinidad is able to and is agreeing to provide water to the proposed hotel from the City’s water supply, or other water supply acceptable to the Executive Director.”

Required daily demand of the proposed hotel remains uncertain (recent values have ranged from 6,200 gpd - 14,000 gpd), but will be substantial relative to the relatively small supply of water available from Luffenholtz Creek, Trinidad’s water source. The City of Trinidad remains uncertain that it can provide the proposed hotel with water (see TRINIDAD WATER SUPPLY, click here) and the Rancheria is apparently attempting to develop on-site groundwater (well) source(s). The CCC staff’s final findings concerning consistency of the proposed hotel with the CZMA, substantially adjusted so as to fit the CCC decision on the visual impacts of the hotel, are here. The CCC’s conditional consistency determination is here. The latest hotel design (Hyatt Place) looks something like the sketch (banner) at the top of this web page.

History of the Proposed Rancheria Hotel:

2009-2011: The Trinidad Rancheria first alerted the local community of its interest in constructing a hotel adjacent to its casino in 2009-2011. A sketch of the proposed 100 room hotel design, coordinated with the existing casino and restaurant, met with local community approval and was included in the Rancheria’s 2011 Comprehensive Plan.

Spring 2018: Local community members did not learn further information about the proposed hotel until they were alerted to an architect’s rendition of a hotel that appeared briefly on the Rancheria’s casino website in Spring of 2018. This sketch was for a six-story “Las Vegas style” hotel and a press report indicated that the Rancheria hoped to begin construction in January of 2019. Local community members reacted with alarm to this design, and to the lack of community involvement in its discussion. Ultimately, this initial Rancheria Hotel design resulted in formation of HARP in summer of 2018.

September 2018: On 20 September 2018, the BIA released a draft Environmental Assessment for the proposed hotel project, and on 02 October 2018 it released a “final” public release draft. The hotel design presented in this document was again a six-story structure, now a Hyatt Place design, which in appearance looked like a southern California “freeway off ramp model”.

HARP responded to the BIA’s EA in two ways. First, we hosted a community information meeting at the Trinidad Town Hall on the evening of 27 September 2018. About 100 members of the local community as well as Rancheria members attended. At this meeting we tried to objectively summarize the content and conclusions of the BIA’s EA, our concerns regarding wastewater disposal, visual impacts, traffic impacts, water needs and other issues, and we asked members of the public to express their opinions concerning the proposed hotel project. There was near unanimous consensus in public comments: (a) community members were generally supportive of the idea of the Rancheria building a hotel, but (b) there was strong opposition to the height and visual appearance of the Hyatt Place hotel design presented in the EA. The PowerPoint presentation that HARP gave at this meeting is here. HARP subsequently submitted detailed Comments to BIA and attached Exhibits noting that the EA was deficient and that the EA incorrectly concluded that the proposed hotel would not have adverse visual impacts, among other negative impacts. HARP also noted that is did not seem appropriate to evaluate the environmental impacts of the hotel alone (“piecemeal approach”) when the hotel was part of a much larger long-term plan to further develop Rancheria lands (see Rancheria’s 2011 Comprehensive Plan), including development of a new Highway 101 Interchange specifically to serve the proposed hotel. The California Coastal Commission also submitted comments to the BIA concerning its Environmental Assessment document.

February-June 2019: On Februrary 11, 2019, The Bureau of Indian Affairs submitted a document to the CCC in which the BIA asserted that the proposed six story hotel was consistent with California’s coastal plan and that there were no adverse environmental effects of the proposed hotel project. The BIA therefore requested that the CCC concur with BIA’s favorable Consistency determination within the 90 day period within which the CCC is obligated to rule on questions of consistency. The BIA’s finding of Consistency is here. In response, the CCC urged the BIA to delay consideration of this issue until the August Meeting of the CCC in Eureka, CA, where members of the local community who might be affected by the proposed hotel development (now a 5-story structure?) could express their concerns. The CCC’s letter to BIA is here. The BIA refused to delay consideration until a later date. Therefore, the CCC scheduled consideration of this issue at its June 2019 meeting in San Diego.

June 2019: HARP presented its concerns regarding the proposed Rancheria Hotel at the June 2019 CCC meeting in San Diego. HARP’s presentation can be downloaded here. All materials presented to the CCC in preparation for the meeting, including Staff Report and materials submitted by the Rancheria can be found here. CCC members could not find that the BIA’s proposal to support the Rancheria’s Hotel project was consistent with California’s Coastal Act because the BIA and Rancheria had failed to establish that the proposed hotel had a demonstrated source of water. The CCC encouraged the BIA/Rancheria to resubmit a request to reconsider the project at the August CCC meeting to be held in Eureka, CA, near the proposed location of the hotel on Trinidad Bay.

August 2019: The CCC revisited the BIA/Rancheria Consistency issue at the August 2019 meeting held in Eureka. Additional materials had been submitted by the Rancheria, including some literally “last-minute” preliminary findings of groundwater on Rancheria lands. (See here for the suite of materials submitted by the Rancheria and others, as well as the Staff Report which was consistent with that provided at the June meeting, i.e. that the Proposed 5 story hotel was not consistent with California’s Coastal Act). Despite public comments concerning the excessive height of the proposed hotel and the Staff Report recommending that the hotel be no more than 40’ in height to prevent adverse visual impacts on surrounding coastal land use, the CCC voted 5-4 in favor of a motion concluding that the proposed 5-story hotel did not have adverse visual impacts. The CCC thereafter passed (8-3) a motion in favor of a positive consistency, conditioned on the Racheria demonstrating that it has obtained agreement from the City of Trinidad to be supplied with adequate water for the proposed hotel or that alternative sources of water (wells on Rancheria property) had been found and would not adversely affect nearby water users (i.e., not reduced water production from nearby wells). The CCC ruling at this meeting seemed at odds with discussions concerning excess height of the proposed structure and it is worthwhile to view the saved video of the CCC deliberation of this matter (click on video link to item 12.b). The Lost Coast Outpost byline concerning this meeting seemed high appropriate: That Coastal Commission Meeting Was a Confusing Mess. Did They Even Mean to Advance the Hotel Project?

Future Action: HARP is actively following the City of Trinidad’s deliberations concerning availability of water for the proposed Rancheria Hotel (see Trinidad Water Supply). We are also trying to penetrate the hard-to-penetrate activities of CAL-TRANS concerning the freeway interchange studies (see Highway 101 Interchange). Finally, HARP may appeal the BIA’s final Environmental Assessment (EA) when and if that becomes available. Probable grounds for appeal would be based primarily on the argument that the proposed hotel is a small part of a much larger development agenda including additional structures on Rancheria lands (possible tripling of the size of casino, construction of a gas station/convenience store complex) and an associated interchange. Together, these clearly related activities warrant development of a full-blown (federal) Environmental Impact Statement rather than the more limited EA that the BIA has thus far developed.