Bingen’s new Indian tobacco retailer, Big River Indian Smoke Shop, drew comments of criticism and concern from neighbors during Bingen’s City Council meeting last Tuesday, March 1.
Locals residing in the same neighborhood as the Big River Indian Smoke shop complained about the legality of the commercial endeavor in a residential zone. The shop is located at the east end of Humboldt Street on Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) trust land and is under BIA and Yakama Nation Jurisdiction.
Deborah Cyparski, a resident of Humboldt Street and near neighbor to the smoke shop, and her husband Jon appealed to the City Council with their concerns of the new business during the public comment period of the meeting.
“My husband and I purchased property from the city of Bingen in a residential neighborhood, believing that zoning protected our quality of life, and our investment,” said Cyparski. “There’s now a commercial development established in the middle of an R1 zone. I’ve spoken with [city administrator] Jan [Brending] on two occasions and was told, and I’m sure she’s right, there’s no regulation from the city on this.”
City Attorney Christopher Lanz ex-plained to everyone the city’s legal limits in regards to BIA trust land. “In general when dealing with property that, where ever it may be, it is deemed to be the same as if it is reservation land,” said Lanz. “So, state regulations, certainly county nor municipal regulations, don’t affect the use at all on those particular parcels.”
Cyparski expressed her intention to ensure the project was permitted and that no oversight would occur on the BIA’s or Yakama Nation’s part.
“I was curious to know [about] with other issues you’ve [the council] dealt with BIA land here in the city and if the attorney has talked to the federal agency, the BIA of Portland, or has been in contact with the Yakama Nation,” said Cyparski, “and if there are guidelines for things that can be addressed by the city to deal with some of the health and safety concerns that bringing an establishment like this into our town might create.”
“I think the people in Bingen, we invested believing our equity and our interests were protected,” continued Cyparski. “I think most of us in the neighborhood feel a little blindsided by what’s happened here, and also a total loss of control that we have — there’s nothing that we can do about it — I just have a hard time believing that.”
“This land is not owned by the Indians, it’s owned by the federal government held in trust for the Indians. So there have to be some regulations,” said Cyparski.
Currently the smoke shop has tentative hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. but lists hours of operation as Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Cyparski suggested opening a dialogue with the Yakama Nation to help limit operating hours, “so that those people in the neighborhood can have a quality of life.”
Brending cited her past experience with the BIA — which doesn’t really have any jurisdiction over the property, according to Brending — as not being particularly helpful in relation to issues with the BIA Yakama Nation properties in town, but added things may be different this time around.
“You know, my concern is also I understand that they’re going to build another building there and house fireworks. So, we’re selling cigarettes and fireworks, and you have a pretty volatile fire season in this community,” said Cyparski. The current structure on the BIA site is temporary and will be converted in to a parking lot once the business’s permanent structure is erected further down on the southern end of the lot.
“You know even right now they’re out smoking cigarettes all day long, I mean, I’m wondering if there’s anything we can do to address the, maybe, increased risk of fire danger in that end of town,” Cyparski added.
The business is located on a dead end street, with no emergency egress out of area. “If a catastrophic fire were to start during heavy winds in the Gorge or during fire season — these are just some of the things I think might be looked at,” said Cyparski.
“So I guess I just wanted to bring these issues up to the council and hopefully be able to pursue some avenue to ensure the safety of the community,” concluded Cyparski.
Jon Cyparski contributed to the public comment period by saying the biggest issue at present was parking. “The main problem we have right now is we can’t even park in front of our home because of all of their employees, it’s a dead end street- there’s just a mass of cars right there and they park in front of the fire hydrant and so on and so forth — and it’s only going to get busier.”
Bingen-White Salmon Police Chief Tracy Wyckoff was present during the public comments and added that he had already spoken to the manager of the smoke shop and had the vehicles blocking the fire hydrant move.
Wyckoff conveyed to members of the City Council and public the manager’s willingness and openness to cooperate with the neighbors to limit possible problems.
In future, warning striping will be painted in front of the hydrant to reiterate the area as a No Parking zone, Brending explained. Parking of RVs or utility trailers will also be prohibited on the road, Brending added.
Mayor Betty Barnes said in the past the city had contacted the tribe regarding other issues and found the communication to be lacking. “They’re not really cooperative; occasionally we will write a letter asking them to please have them clean up the land after the fireworks season,” Barnes said. “Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.”
“We have nothing to lose,” noted Barnes. “We’re not really any happier about it than you are.”
The city does have some municipal muscle it can flex, although this is limited to the use of signage, Barnes explained. So far the smoke shop hasn’t broken the city’s signage code, which prevents businesses from having off-site signage, anything installed on the property is allowable.
“It’s frustrating, but we will look in to the things we can do, and look into working and talking to the tribes,” said Barnes.
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