Residents, Indians Join to Oppose Office Plan : Development: Chumash leaders want an archeological survey of the land, while a homeowners activist calls for an environmental impact report. The matter is under study.

An unlikely coalition of suburbanites and American Indians appeared before the city Building and Safety Commission Tuesday to demand that an archeological survey precede construction of an office building near the site of the “Lost Village of Encino,” a major Ventura Boulevard dig discovered in 1984.

But when developer Maurice Cohen said he would voluntarily survey his property to avoid further delays, slow-growth activist Gerald Silver declined the offer and called for a full environmental review, drawing laughter from other builders who contend that Silver’s goal is stopping development, not preserving Indian relics.

After an hour of testimony, the commission continued its hearing for two weeks to enable another city agency, the Planning Department’s Environmental Review Committee, to study the case and independently recommend whether an archeological survey is needed.

“I need an expert opinion,” said Commissioner Benito Sinclair, who moved for the delay.

Under scrutiny is whether the city Building and Safety Department erred when it found that Cohen and his brother, Albert, who want to build a 47,800-square-foot office building at Ventura Boulevard and La Maida Street, did not need to conduct a preliminary archeological survey.

Silver, as president of Homeowners of Encino, has appealed the decision to the five-member Building and Safety Commission, arguing that the project lies across the street from the “Lost Village” and very likely contains Indian remains and relics. Silver has filed a similar appeal in connection with another office building proposed for the same block.

The highly publicized “Lost Village,” discovered six years ago during a construction project at the southeast corner of Ventura and Balboa boulevards, was so named because its more than 1 million artifacts were said to be evidence of an Indian village documented by 18th-Century Spanish explorers and long sought by modern archeologists.

The site has since been covered by a large office building and its artifacts remain in storage at the Huntington Beach warehouse of the archeologist who excavated it.

Today, Silver and supporters were scheduled to appear before the city Cultural Heritage Commission to seek monument status for the “Lost Village” and its immediate neighborhood.

On Tuesday, two Chumash Indian leaders told the Building and Safety Commission that the whole neighborhood should be considered archeologically sensitive because Encino’s natural springs had drawn a variety of tribes who followed the water and settled over a wide area, leaving behind their tools and sacred burial grounds.

Speaking were Richard Angulo of Thousand Oaks, a member of the California Indian Council, and Charlie Cooke of Acton, a hereditary tribal chief whose long, dark brown hair, silver and turquoise jewelry and tall, carved-oak walking stick contrasted sharply with the drab meeting room and its occupants’ conventional business suits.

“Every time you demolish a site, it takes a part of our culture,” said Cooke, who added that his ancestors were forcibly removed from the village by Spanish settlers to help build the San Fernando Mission. “And when you take away from our past, you take away from our future.”

“A lot of people ask me, ‘Why are these sites so spiritually significant to you?’ ” Angulo said. “I tell them, ‘Because our forefathers were murdered on these grounds.’ ”

Silver argued that a number of other issues--such as traffic and air quality--should also be studied in a full environmental impact report. But Sinclair and other commissioners said they were interested only in the archeological question.

Another Encino resident who belongs to a different homeowners group, Kathy Lewis of the Encino Property Owners Assn., said after the hearing that she would meet with the Cohens to discuss their offer to conduct an archeological survey. Lewis said that her group’s primary concern was protecting artifacts, and that if the developer was going to pay for an archeological study, she wanted to ensure its credibility.

Maurice Cohen said he was willing to pay for an archeological survey but resented Silver’s attempt to force him to conduct a full environmental impact report, which he described as a costly and time-consuming undertaking. Asked how much such a report would cost him, Cohen replied:

“Write down bankruptcy. That’s what it costs, and it’ll take a year and a half to do.”