Tribe: Casino will complement rural Northwest landscape

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001 | 10:25 a.m.

SNOQUALMIE, Wash. -- The Snoqualmie Tribe has unveiled plans for a casino, while some residents expressed concerns that the three-story, 170,000-square-foot building would disturb the rural area.

The casino -- planned on 56 acres just off Interstate 90's Exit 27 -- would feature 425 slot-type machines, about 30 tables for games such as craps and blackjack, and seats for off-track betting, as well as a 400-seat theater, three restaurants and parking for 900 vehicles.

But the tribe stressed that the casino would honor the tribe's tradition.

"We've always been cautious with what we've done with the land and how we maintain it," Ray Mullen, the tribe's economic-development director, said Tuesday at a Snoqualmie City Council meeting. "We're trying not to make it a scar. We don't want to put a big, glaring neon sign out there."

It would be decorated with "stone, timbers and a Northwest color palette," rather than the "Disney World" longhouses and totem poles of other area casinos, said Steve Walker, managing director of Heartland, a Seattle company working with the tribe, and manager of the Snoqualmie Hills Joint Venture, which owns the land.