Jamul Casino EIR

The EIR (Environmental Impact Report) for the proposed Jamul Indian Casino has been long awaited by the majority in the community who oppose this project (including us). An article in this morning’s San Diego Union-Tribune says that it is due to be released today sometime, and will be made available on the Jamul Indian Village web site. The newspaper has a copy of the report already, and according to them there are only two unmitigatable impacts listed. One is a traffic impact, and the other is how the casino would change Jamul’s appearance:

The only other such impact was described as the project’s “visual transformation of land within the Jamul valley.” However, the report adds that “this is a trend that began long ago with San Diego County’s approval of residential subdivisions and commercial facilities” in Jamul.

That finding is as close as the report comes to addressing a primary objection of opponents – that the casino would alter the fundamental character of Jamul, a bedroom community that considers itself a rural enclave despite its 20-mile proximity to downtown San Diego.

Lead consultant Joe Broadhead of Environmental Data Systems said the report does not analyze potential changes in community character because that is difficult to gauge and subjective to assess. Instead, he said, “We break all of the (related) issues down to their component parts – air quality, traffic, noise” and other factors that can be quantified.

In other words, they completely bypassed one of the major objections of the community — that the presence of the casino would irrevocably change the rural character of Jamul. It looks to me like they’re setting up their legal arguments with the claim that Jamul’s rural character has already changed.

I don’t know whether a change in the rural character is actually something that could be successfully used to challenge an EIR. But I can’t imagine any other species than lawyers who would make a straight-faced claim that the monstrous proposed casino would NOT change Jamul’s character. There must be a significant part of law school devoted to thrashing the common sense out of every lawyer…