Joe Shaw at Greetings From Huntington Beach writes, "The Ridge development project, proposed for an important natural and historic site at Bolsa Chica, was approved Tuesday night by the Huntington Beach Planning Commission. Approving bankrupt builder Hearthside Homes’ 22-home residential project required the planning commission to re-zone this site from parkland to residential..
"The Planning Commission voted 4-3 to change the zoning, despite a plethora of evidence that the bluffs are too close to environmentally sensitive habitat and will destroy a sacred Native American burial and ceremonial site.... Both 'The Ridge' and the 'Goodell Property' ...overlap ORA-83 and ORA-86 which are historically and culturally significant to Native Americans and to our understanding of the Bolsa Chica’s ancient peoples. Together they are 'one of the most important archeological sites' in all of California. Both are threatened by residential development."
The photo above comes from the Orange Coast Voice, and shows protesters at Bolsa Chica in 2008. They were there "denouncing the building of houses upon an 8,500 year old village site, which includes at least 174 human burials.".
The Bolsa Chica Land Trust will be fighting to save these historic sites in ways that will hopefully be a lot more effective than marching with signs.
Something is very wrong with our culture, when a 174 sets of human remains are excavated for a housing tract. What if this were a Civil War cemetery? A similar excavation took place a few years ago at Playa Vista, when 3 to 4 hundred sets of human remains were excavated for a high rent development. Let's just let these people rest! O.C. does not need more houses.
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