Casino billboard must go

ARLINGTON – The Stillaguamish Tribe picked a choice I-5 location for its casino billboard, but the state won’t let it ride.

The state Department of Transportation has informed the tribe that a billboard near Island Crossing advertising its Angel of the Winds casino is illegal and must be removed, said Pat O’Leary, who manages the department’s program on roadside signs.

Dan Bates / The Herald

A billboard advertising the Angel of the Winds Casino just south of the Stillaguamish River next to I-5 outside of Arlington is illegal, the state Department of Transportation has informed the Stillaguamish Tribe.

Casino opponents had complained about the sign. Twice as tall as the semi-truck trailer it is mounted to, it tells drivers “the world’s friendliest casino” is at the “next exit, turn right.”

The billboard’s location on the south bank of the Stillaguamish River facing northbound I-5 traffic is too close to the casino’s exit about a mile north, O’Leary said.

“On the interstate system, no off-premise advertising signs are allowed within two miles of the advance of an offramp, or exit roadway,” O’Leary said, according to criteria in the state’s Scenic Vistas Act.

The Stillaguamish Tribe’s billboard for its casino is on land zoned for agricultural use. Billboards are only allowed in commercial or industrial areas.

The law also requires such billboards to be placed only in commercial or industrial zones. The casino billboard is zoned for agriculture.

The casino also has advertised on long-established billboards throughout the county.

The state has given the tribe 30 days to remove the sign, O’Leary said.

Eddie Goodridge Jr., the tribe’s executive director, declined comment.

Ken Childress, co-founder of the defunct casino opponent group, No Dice, wants the sign removed.

“The big deal about this one is it’s clearly different from the rest of the billboards on the freeway,” Childress said, citing the state’s rules.

Childress and some of his neighbors opposed the 22,000-square-foot, $19 million casino for two years before it opened last fall. They objected to opening a casino in a rural residential area they say is ill-suited for commercial development.

Childress said he would fight any illegal sign that promotes commercial development in his neighborhood. He admitted, though, that if the sign promoted a business elsewhere his attitude would be different.

“I probably wouldn’t care that much,” Childress said.

State officials consulted the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs this month to determine the ownership status of the land. O’Leary said some tribes have skirted the state’s billboard rules by erecting signs on federal trust land, such as near I-5 in Tacoma.

Federal trust land is not subject to local land-use rules. The Stillaguamish casino, for example, avoided county zoning codes because it was built on trust land.

The land where the billboard was erected is owned by Native American Ventures, a business owned by Goodridge and other family members, according to county records. The tribe responded to state officials that it had nominated that parcel of land for trust status.

Federal officials told the state the process could take eight months or more than a year. Given that, the state is saying the sign has to come down in the meantime.

“If it had been 30 days or 60 days or something we probably would have just dropped the issue,” O’Leary said.

Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@ heraldnet.com.

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