FRUITPORT TOWNSHIP, MI – An application for a new casino never moves quickly, but one tribe's plans to build an $180 million casino development in a Muskegon suburb keep moving steadily.

The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians will be the "Little Engine that could," according to Tribal Ogema Larry Romanelli. The tribe's application is moving faster than expected through a federal bureaucratic process, and he credits the project's local support.

The Manistee-based Little River Band of Ottawa Indians a year ago filed an application with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to take 60 acres into trust for a $180 million casino development. Tribal officials said Thursday the bureau had released a report defining the scope of an Environmental Impact Study that could define the course that the project takes in the future.

"What it tells me is that there's not a lot of opposition," Tribal Ogema Larry Romanelli said. "I really believe that the support the community gives this project is helping it move along at a faster pace."

The scoping report is based on questions and comments submitted by the public, including those made at an Oct. 15 meeting at Fruitport Middle School. It outlines areas to be studied in the Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS. Here is a sampling of the wide variety of questions and discussion topics required by the report:

• Will Lake Michigan be observable from the on-site hotel?
• Discuss accessibility from westbound Interstate 96 (I-96) and the intersection at Harvey Street and East Sternberg Road, including historic accidents and merging issues?
• Discuss gambling addiction, including a potential strain on limited resources provide by local agencies, churches, and ministries.
• Include consultation documents regarding Federal and State threatened and endangered species and wetlands.
• If you become an employee of the casino, are you banned from gambling?

The scoping report found that a few of the public's questions or comments were outside of the EIS scope:

• Discuss Manistee Indian rights to develop land in Muskegon Indians' territory.
• Discuss monopolization of casino industry by introducing a second casino owned by the Tribe.

Many – not all -- of the comments at the Oct. 15 meeting were in support of the project. The Fruitport Township Board and Muskegon County Board of Commissioners have formally supported the project and have signed on as cooperating agencies with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Muskegon County Board of Commissioners Chairman Terry Sabo sees several reasons to support the project.

"Keeping some of Muskegon's dollars in Muskegon, that's one of the benefits," he said. "It's a tourism draw ... What I think may be the most important part is, it's going to provide a lot of jobs to a lot of people.

The Little River Band's proposed gaming and economic development project would include 1,700 slot machines and 35 table games, a 220-room hotel, conference and meeting room space, and dining and entertainment options. The casino development is estimated to attract an estimated 1.88 million visitors a year, and create nearly 1,500 jobs, according to information from the tribe.

More work remains ahead.

"Could it be two years, seven years? I don't know," Romanelli said.

The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be available for public review in fall 2016, and Romanelli said it's possible there will be another public forum at that time to gather comments.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and its parent organization, the Department of the Interior, would then sign off on the completed EIS document, and the proposal would travel back to the state level by the house, senate and governor, he said.

"I've got to think it's going to take at least a couple years," Sabo said.