Future of Tulalip tribal leases unclear

Published 10:06 pm Friday, July 24, 2009

TULALIP — There were lots of questions but few answers at a meeting this week about the Tulalip Tribes’ plans for how they intend to use reservation land.

The tribal government’s draft Comprehensive Land Use Plan encompasses the 22,000 acres within the historic boundaries of the Tulalip Indian Reservation, including land owned by non-Indians.

Several dozen people packed into a conference room at the Tulalip Hotel, many with questions about whether the tribal government plans to renew land leases for non-Indians. John Hardy, who moved with his wife four years ago to a home on leased land on Totem Beach Loop, asked the tribal Planning Commission if there is anything that can be done to extend leases.

Hardy’s lease, like many of the leases along the reservation’s waterfront, is set to end in 2012. Hardy received a letter from the tribal government stating that he can choose to extend it one final time, until 2027.

Bill Shelton, chairman of the Tulalip Planning Commission, told Hardy that the meeting was meant to collect comments and questions that would be answered in a report at a later date. None of the commission’s members were prepared Wednesday to respond to comments or questions.

From there, most of the more than a dozen people who had signed up to speak declined to comment.

It’s not clear when the tribal planning department will release the report in response to the comments. It’s also not clear what role, if any, Snohomish County’s planners will have in the process.

County planners asked the tribal government for extra time to review the land-use plan, said Larry Adamson, the county’s acting planning director.

“We’re looking for ways to jointly plan deeded, nontribal land and we will try to address that in our review,” Adamson said in an e-mail.

Gus Taylor, public works director for the Tulalip Tribes, said in an e-mail that he could not comment on the process around the development of the plan.

Leaseholders and other non-Indian reservation residents said Wednesday that the meeting did little to assuage their fears that they will be forced out of their homes.

“When we first came, we had an automatically renewable lease,” said Bruce McNeil, who has lived on leased land on Totem Beach Road for 32 years.

McNeil assumed the tribe would continue renewing the leases for generations to come.

“Now,” he said, “we feel stupid.”

Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422, kkapralos@heraldnet.com.