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| A Taste of Things to Come? |
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| Stuck in Casino traffic 24/7! |
82 miles of casino traffic. That's what we'd get on Highway 101
and local roads every twenty-four hours if the 760,000 square foot casino proposed by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino is built next to Highway 101 in Sonoma County. According to traffic experts,
each slot machine in a casino generates 13.6 car trips per day. The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
have proposed at least 2,000 slots for their casino. That's 27,000 additional car trips per day - the equivalent of 82
miles of cars and buses if placed end to end. (see footnote below) If the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
casino gets 4,000 or 5,000 slot machines form Governor Schwarzenegger - well, you do the math!
With 27,000 or more additional car, bus and truck trips per day generated by the casino, we'll
all be going nowhere fast. All the improvements and additional lanes will simply be consumed by the casino traffic, and we'll
back to square one - stuck in traffic on Highway 101!
Other California commnities have suffered the
result of traffic from big tribal casinos. The Pechanga casino down by Temecula has caused innumerable problems on Pechanga Parkway, the main route to the casino, and now, the casino is expanding. Bill Hughes, Temecula's
public works director, calls future traffic projections for Highway 79 South "doomed". He also recently claimed
that traffic circulation on Pechanga Parkway will eventually fail.
Locally, a pie-in-the-sky attitude
on the part of Caltrans prevails. On the one hand, they plan to enter into an agreement with the Federated Indians
of Graton Rancheria for the increased traffic needs for the casino (Caltrans District 4 is a "Cooperating Agency"
for the project's DEIS). On the other hand, they refuse to consider the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
casino in their Highway 101 improvement projects traffic models.
Wilfred Avenue Overpass: This is a lynchpin component for the Rohnert Park casino. The Graton DEIS
relies heavily upon the construction of this Overpass for its traffic flow projections. However, Caltrans not only failed to perform an environmental review for the Overpass project,
it refused to consider casino traffic in its projections, even though the proposed casino site is only two blocks from the
Overpass. This failure on the part of Caltrans is currently the subject of a lawsuit against Caltrans by Rohnert Park Citizens to Enforce CEQA.
The Whitlock & Weinberger traffic studies commissioned
by the City of Rohnert Park for the Wilfred Avenue Overpass project indicate that the casino would bring the level
of service (LOS) for the Overpass project from an LOS "E" to an LOS "E" when the 2,000 slots casino is
considered. In other words, there would be no improvement after spending $40 million to build the new Overpass that would
service the Graton casino.
Novato Narrows: Both District 6
state elected officials, Senator Carole Migden and Assemblymember Jared Huffman, have spoken out against Caltrans refusal to consider the FIGR casino in the long-awaited Novato Narrows project,
an $800 million project that could see no net improvement as a result of Graton Rancheria casino traffic.
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Chairman Greg Sarris promises to mitigate "all impacts" from the casino. He even stated that he would build new lanes "all
the way to the Golden Gate Bridge" if it were necessary! Even at a low figure of 18,000+ vehicle trips per
day, Rohnert Park casino traffic would need an entire lane all its own on Highway 101 from in both directions. Could
the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria mitigate this? Well, according to Caltrans, it costs $20
million to build one lane of freeway one mile in one direction. Does anybody really think the Federated
Indians of Graton Rancheria-Station Casinos gambling syndicate would spend this kind of money, just so you can get to work
on time? Most of any money needed to make improvements to accomodate the traffic from the Federated Indians
of Graton Rancheria's casino would be YOUR money - federal and state tax dollars!! This isn't just scare tactics: the situation is so unnerving that the Sonoma County Transportation Authority has taken action in the form of a three page letter sent to Sacramento that asks the Governor not to grant a compact for this
site until all the traffic concerns have been addressed. The big problem is, the traffic impact, like most
of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino project's impacts, cannot be mitigated.
NEW! PETALUMA CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE says traffic from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria's casino would be "detrimental to
businesses throughout Sonoma County" and ask Supervisor Mike Kerns for
a county-wide advisory vote! Read the letter HERE!
NO NEW MOU!! The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria And the City of Rohnert Park does not apply to the new site! Contact the City
Council and tell them NO NEW MOU!! Click on the link below, and send an email to Rohnert Park's City Council
today!
Click Here to send an email to the Rohnert Park City Council
5,000 HOURS STUCK IN TRAFFIC!
5,000 HOURS STUCK IN TRAFFIC: that's what Sonoma County drivers spend stuck in traffic on Highway 101. 5,000 hours.
More than a year of work days.
In fact, Sonoma County is the only Bay Area county to experience an increase in
congestion; by 2003, delays on Highway 101 in Sonoma County increased 18%, up 44% from 1999. Morning, noon or night - it doesn't
matter. If you're driving Highway 101 in Sonoma County, you're stuck in traffic.
5,000 hours. That's
pretty bad. But what if it were 10,000 hours? What if it took more than the usual half hour to drive the seven miles from
Rohnert Park to the County Administration Center in North Santa Rosa? What if it took an hour just to get from Rohnert Park
or Cotati to the County Courthouse?
What if you lived in Rohnert Park, and wanted to shop at Costco or Target
or Wal-Mart, but it took you 45 minutes to get to the other side of town, because the casino traffic was backed up three miles?
What if you were in an ambulance headed for the hospital in Santa Rosa, but were stuck in traffic on Highway 101?
What if all the work that's been done to date on the freeway and the alternate routes like Stony Point Road, as well
as the new lanes to be added on Highway 101 in the future did nothing at all to make your commute faster and easier?
That's what will happen if the casino proposed by the Fedrated Indians of Graton Rancheria and their Las Vegas partners
for the Labath Avenue and Wilfred Avenue site is built. This new site is only one block from the Wal-Mart/Home Depot shopping
center, and Highway 101!
CLICK HERE to read the Sonoma County Transportation Authority letter to Sacramento (PDF)
Read Project 101's letter to Rohnert Park-CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE to TAKE ACTION!
| Looking at Casino site from Rohnert Park |
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Footnote:
13.6 cars per slot x 2,000 slots = 27,000 car trips per day
27,000 x 16' length cars/buses/vans averaged out = 432,000'
432,000' divided by 5,280' per mile = 81.818 miles OR
82 miles rounded up.
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