Developer waits for court ruling on bones found near Bolsa Chica

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A court hearing next month should settle an argument

between a developer and an environmental group about the significance of

finding ancient human remains and artifacts along the border of the Bolsa

Chica mesa.

Orange County Superior Court Judge William McDonald will decide Sept. 8

whether more environmental studies should be performed on land where a

Native American’s cheekbone fragment, a tooth, a cog stone and a grinding

stone were discovered earlier this month, Deputy City Atty. John Fujii

said.

A spokeswoman for developer Hearthside Homes, formerly the Koll Real

Estate Group Inc., said that none of these findings -- estimated to be

8,000 years old -- should force the company to alter its plans to build

16 two-story, single-family homes at the southwest corner of Bolsa Chica

Street and Los Patos Avenue.

“There’s nothing unique about a find now,” the company’s executive vice

president Lucy Dunn said.

Previous studies done on the site have unearthed similar remains and

artifacts, she said.

But the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, which sued the developer to at least

delay construction, claims “rare” pieces of Native American history may

be destroyed if Hearthside moves ahead with construction, the complaint

shows.

“Our whole point is this area deserves more study,” Land Trust member

Connie Boardman said.

With grading complete, the only construction the judge will allow until

the hearing next month is a six-foot perimeter wall around the property,

Fujii said.

Hearthside will work with descendants of the Juaneno and Gabrielino

tribes who once lived at Bolsa Chica to determine what should be done

with the unearthed remains, Dunn said.

An official at the state’s Native American Heritage Commission said the

bones must be reburied.

“This is somebody’s ancestors, relatives,” said Gail McNulte, the

agency’s associate program analyst. “[The descendants] want them to be

put back to Mother Earth where they belong.”