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Jackson County has questioned the legality of a proposed Medford casino and has raised alarms that the Coquille Indian Tribe could place more casinos along the Interstate 5 corridor from Ashland to north of Eugene. Joel Benton, county counsel, sent a letter June 3 to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to respond to a draft environmental review of the proposed casino on South Pacific Highway. “Based on the administrative draft, it is now evident that the Coquille plans to open multiple facilities throughout the state of Oregon,” Benton wrote. The Coquille tribe wants to build a casino called Cedars at Bear Creek along Highway 99 in south Medford. The tribe would convert the current Roxy Ann Lanes bowling alley and the former site of Kim's restaurant into a casino with 650 video gambling machines, but wouldn’t feature the card games available at other larger casinos in the state such as Seven Feathers in Canyonville. The Coquille tribe has asked the BIA to place the 2.42-acre Medford property, excluding an adjacent golf course, into a government trust. Brenda Meade, chairwoman of the tribe, said she doesn’t understand why Jackson County believes her tribe is interested in establishing casinos at other locations listed as alternative sites in the BIA environmental review. “The Coquille tribe doesn’t own any of these sites,” Meade said. She said the Bureau of Indian Affairs requires consideration of alternative locations as part of the environmental review. The document was prepared by Analytical Environmental Services of Sacramento for BIA. Meade said the tribe has no interest in going through another federal process that could take up to 10 years in order to build a casino on another site. According to the BIA review, other potential locations include Ashland, Eagle Point and multiple areas throughout Medford and Eugene. However, in the analysis of the 16 sites, it discounts each for reasons such as the high cost of land, distance from the freeway or environmental issues. One of the sites considered was in Millersburg, north of Albany in Linn County, but that location is outside the Coquille tribe’s five-county service area. Additional sites, including forestland owned by the Coquille tribe near Coos Bay, also were discounted in the analysis. Meade said she isn’t sure why the 16 sites were chosen, speculating that they were probably properties of about the same size as the south Medford location. She said the tribe, before purchasing the south Medford property in 2012, did look at a number of locations, but it decided the South Pacific location had the most going for it, including good freeway access and a location in a desirable community. Despite the environmental reviews discounting the 16 alternative sites, Benton said the county is concerned that the Coquille could purchase land in the future on one of these sites and convert it into reservation land. “There is nothing to prohibit them from doing this up and down Interstate 5,” Benton said in a phone interview. Benton said the county also is concerned about the legality of the Coquille project. Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, lands can’t be taken into trust except through an exception process, but Benton explained in his letter that the BIA hasn’t outlined why the Coquille tribe qualifies under the exception process. “The BIA cannot legally continue to put off this legal analysis,” the county letter stated. The BIA environmental review doesn’t have any analysis of the legality of the proposed gaming operation in Medford, according to Benton’s letter. “We don’t know if it’s a lawful process,” Benton said. “We don’t think it’s the right process.” Meade said her tribe is following the procedures set out by the BIA, which hired AES of Sacramento to conduct the environmental review, though the Coquille tribe will ultimately pay for it. Because the environmental review is incomplete, Meade said, the comments made by Jackson County and the city of Medford could eventually be reflected in the federal record. “We’re commenting on something AES hasn’t completed yet,” she said. Meade said her tribe is in a different position than other tribes that had their lands restored before the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The Coquille Restoration Act took place a year later in 1989. The Mail Tribune did not receive a response from the BIA Friday concerning the issues raised by Jackson County. Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/reporterdm .