Casino raises fears of crime, traffic in Chandler

Chandler residents living in subdivisions along Hunt Highway — many high-end, gated communities — are worried what a $60 million, 120,000-square-foot casino planned across the road will mean for their way of life.

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“My concern is over raising kids in that area,” resident Robert Kane said. “What’s it going to do to my house value, crime rates, traffic rates?”

The Gila River Indian Community plans to relocate its Lone Butte Casino to the west side of Gilbert Road about a quarter-mile south of Hunt Highway.

Gila River officials chose to go east to move into untapped markets and put more distance between their existing East Valley casinos, which tend to “cannibalize each other,” said Dale Gutenson, a spokesman for the Gila River community.

Tribal officials have said they want to begin construction in July and expect to open in early 2008.

But several residents have objected to the new facility that will ultimately include a golf course and restaurants just across Hunt Highway from their homes.

Kane, who has lived in the area for about six years, has already put a deposit down on a new home in Queen Creek.

“(The casino) is one of the main reasons,” he said. “We were planning on staying another three or four years, but not anymore.”

Kane first learned of the casino plans from a neighbor who sent out mailers publicizing the development.

“My concern is if they have a big casino going down there, the traffic issues are going to affect the whole neighborhood,” said Yalda Alawi, a resident and real estate agent who sent out the mailers. “If you have drunk people driving around, that’s not going to be good.”

The Arizona Department of Gaming, which oversees Indian casinos, has no data to indicate whether casinos increase crime rates in surrounding areas.

“But the casinos themselves invest a lot of money and resources in security and surveillance and staff,” department spokeswoman Seena Simon said.

Police officials contacted by the Tribune said they have no way of knowing what effects a casino might have on a residential area.

Police in Scottsdale, which borders the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, don’t track criminal or drunken driving arrests associated with Casino Arizona near McKellips Road and Loop 101.

And the Chandler Police Department, which patrols Hunt Highway, has a wait-and-see approach to the new casino.

“Once it gets in, once it gets running, we’ll have to see and adjust and do what we need to at that time to handle any other kind of problems that may or may not arise out there,” Sgt. Rick Griner said.

Gutenson, who is responsible for planning the new casino, said concerns about traffic problems will likely be resolved once an ongoing traffic study is completed.

As for crime, “people come to the site, they do what they do, and they leave,” he said. “We haven’t found anywhere they go around to neighborhoods and steal to support their habit.”

He said nearby residents may be judging too soon and ought to wait for more information.

“I think it will look better than some people have imagined,” he said. “I think maybe they imagine the worst, I don’t know.”

But residents, and Chandler city officials, say they’ve asked for more information, but can’t seem to get through.

“It appears the press knows more about this than we do,” Chandler public works director Dan Cook told the city’s traffic commission Thursday.

State gaming officials said last week the Gila River community has only two requirements to satisfy under its compact: Keep the casinos at least a mile and half apart and notify surrounding communities that a new facility is on the way.

“But beyond those two requirements ... Gila River does not need state approval to move the casino to its new location,” Simon said.

Tribal officials now say the recent reactions from neighboring communities have made them want to slow down and improve their communication with Chandler leaders.

“Because of the level of inquiries, I think we’re going to be a little more diligent in getting information together,” Gutenson said.

That will be welcome news to residents such as Alawi, who has been trying to get information from city and tribal officials to keep her neighbors informed through e-mails and on her company’s Web site, www.myrealpro.com.

But so far, city officials have said they don’t know any more than anyone else, even though they’ve tried to get more information from the Gila River community.

Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn sent a letter to Gila River Community Gov, William Rhodes earlier this month asking for more information.

“We want to be a good neighbor, but we also want to be an informed neighbor,” Dunn wrote. “Although we have called your office on a number of occasions, we have not been able to schedule meeting with you or your staff.”

City staff said Monday they have not yet received a response to that letter.

The mayor said he was surprised to learn of the casino plan, since Rhodes had told him recently that the land was going to remain agricultural.

“Apparently that’s changed,” Dunn said last week.

Gila River officials have met with Chandler traffic engineers recently to inquire about the city’s plans for improving Hunt Highway. But the city has “absolutely no plans for Hunt Highway at this time,” Cook said.

And Gilbert Road, the closest north-south arterial, isn’t slated for any improvements until 2010, Cook said.

The Gila River community is moving the Lone Butte Casino, now on 56th Street south of Pecos Road, because it plans to move the Wild Horse Pass Casino closer to Interstate 10.

The reservation’s gambling compact with the state requires that casinos be at least a mile and a half apart.