Developer Fined for Damaging Chumash Sites

The developer of a 240-acre Thousand Oaks housing project has been fined $500 by city officials for repeatedly damaging Chumash Indian archeological sites.

The fine levied Wednesday against the Standard Pacific Development Co. of Westlake Village is the first ever sought by the city for damage to archeological sites, which are protected by a 17-year-old ordinance, Thousand Oaks Deputy City Atty. Shawn Mason said.

City inspectors who visited the housing project Tuesday discovered that workers this week stripped several inches of topsoil from a Chumash site, the third violation at the site in seven months, city officials said.

Tools Found on Site

The 148-home development, at Lynn Road and Wendy Drive, is being built amid remains of a Chumash village, where artifacts such as bowls, hammers, scrapers and sea shells recently have been found.

City law requires that such archeologically significant sites be left intact. They are marked by stakes during construction.

Violation of the law is a misdemeanor, but no charges were filed in this case because Standard Pacific agreed to pay the fine, Mason said. The fine was collected under civil provisions of city building codes for failure to obey conditions of development, he said.

Construction Halted

Thousand Oaks Associate Planner Gregory P. Smith said the first problem at the housing project was detected Nov. 19, when the city ordered a temporary halt to work there because grading had been done on a Chumash site.

At that time, city officials discovered that the company had failed to hire an archeologist to identify and preserve significant archeological sites on the property, a city requirement for projects of that size. According to city records, the firm subsequently hired a consulting firm that identified six Chumash sites that have to be preserved under city and state laws.

But city inspectors found in April that workers again had used earth-moving equipment on one of the Chumash sites. The developer was told then by city officials that “we expected this to never happen again,” Smith said.

“We had already given them one warning that we didn’t want the site disturbed in any way,” Smith said.

City officials were told of the damage this week to the Chumash site by Richard Angulo, a Chumash Indian who lives in the area. “I just drove by one day and saw it,” he said.

Unless the city takes action to protect Chumash sites during construction, Angulo said, developers may ignore the city law.

‘Too Much’

“One mistake, I can see it, two mistakes maybe. But this time was too much,” Angulo said.

Mason, the deputy city attorney, said that, besides paying the fine, Standard Pacific will restore the damaged areas.

Work on the site will be monitored by city inspectors, who could seek more fines for subsequent damage to the Chumash sites, Mason said. There is no limit on the civil fines the city may seek for violations, he said.

Standard Pacific officials could not be reached for comment.