ARLINGTON – A 30-day window to encourage leaders of the Stillaguamish Tribe to take down an illegally located casino billboard near I-5 has come and gone.
The sign is still up, and the tribal leaders who own the land are not saying what they plan to do.
However, Pat O’Leary, the state Department of Transportation’s outdoor advertising control program manager, is still hoping the landowner, Native American Ventures, eventually will comply voluntarily.
Native American Ventures is a limited liability company that county documents show belongs to Ed Goodridge Sr., Eddie Goodridge Jr. and Sara Schroedl. Each has recently held or continues to hold key leadership positions with the Stillaguamish Tribe.
“I’ve been trying to contact Native American Ventures LLC. Oftentimes, there are good reasons” people can’t be reached, O’Leary said.
He said he wants to talk with them directly to see if they plan to take down the billboard. State law deems it too close to I-5 exits and an agricultural zone.
Goodridge Jr. declined to comment about the sign.
“If they do not intend to take it down, then yes, we’ll follow through,” O’Leary said.
In that case, the department would send Native American Ventures an order to remove the sign. State rules require compliance within 15 days, O’Leary said, but that order has not yet been sent.
The first 30-day period the state set up in mid-January was designed to resolve the issue cooperatively, O’Leary said. That period ended Feb. 14, and state officials later visited the spot north of Island Crossing to see if the sign was still there.
Advertising to take the next exit to the tribe’s Angel of the Winds casino, the sign is mounted to a semitrailer on the south bank of the Stillaguamish River facing northbound traffic.
The billboard’s location violates the state’s Scenic Vistas Act because no off-premise advertising signs are allowed within two miles of an interstate exit or onramp, O’Leary said. Billboards also must be in commercial or industrial zones, not farmland.
Other tribes have bypassed the law by locating billboards on land held in federal trust for their tribes. Trust status allows tribes wide immunity from local land-use laws.
Goodridge Jr., while refraining from commenting on the sign, was willing to talk about trust issues. The land the sign is on does not have trust status, but the tribe has applied for it, he said.
Even though his family’s company owns it, the plan is to eventually transfer ownership, Goodridge said.
“The tribe’s getting the land,” he said. “More than likely, we’ll just be giving the land to the tribe.”
If the tribe could get the land into trust status quickly, the state would probably not bother pressing the issue, O’Leary said. The process typically takes several months, however, so the sign must come down in the meantime, he said.
In recent years, the state has not had to push beyond the 30-day voluntary window, since most landowners comply, O’Leary said.
On rare occasions, the department has turned unresolved cases over to the state Attorney General’s Office.
O’Leary hopes to avoid that. “We don’t use this a lot,” he said.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
