Panel Urges That Experts Observe Digging Near ‘Lost Village’ Site

A city agency recommended Thursday that an archeologist and an American Indian representative observe grading of a proposed construction site near the “Lost Village of Encino” archeological discovery on Ventura Boulevard in case Indian artifacts or remains are found.

The recommendation went beyond state legal requirements but fell short of the demands of Indian and homeowner activists, some of whom oppose the construction.

The experts should be retained before grading or building permits are issued, and the archeologist should be authorized to halt construction work for up to 90 days if artifacts are found, said recommendations issued Thursday by the environmental review committee of the city Planning Department.

Committee chairman Michael Feldman said the recommended measures would ensure the protection of an archeologically sensitive area near Ventura and Balboa boulevards, where six years ago excavation for an office building unearthed the “Lost Village of Encino,” setting off one of the state’s largest and most expensive archeological digs.

The recommendations are scheduled for discussion Tuesday by the city Building and Safety Commission, which could accept, reject or amend the planning department’s proposal.

Under review by the commission is a proposed three-story office building on the north side of Ventura Boulevard at La Maida Street, across from the “Lost Village” site on the southeastern corner of Ventura and Balboa boulevards. Archeologists have said that the remains of a sizable village may extend throughout the area.

A coalition of slow-growth Encino homeowners and Indians have asked the commission to review findings by the city Building and Safety Department, which determined that the La Maida Street project required no preliminary archeological investigation, despite its proximity to the “Lost Village” site.

The Building and Safety Department cleared the project for a building permit, saying that work should be stopped and an archeologist hired only if artifacts are found by construction workers. But Richard Holguin, the department’s chief of structural plan check, agreed Thursday that his staff’s recommendation was insufficient.

In calling for the presence of an Indian monitor on the site, the planning department committee went beyond California environmental laws, which specify only that an archeologist monitor grading in archeologically sensitive areas. State law requires Indian participation only if Indian remains are found.

Feldman and other committee officials said archeologists and Indian monitors should be on hand from the beginning because planning department maps clearly show the “Lost Village” and its environs as an archeologically significant area.

Albert Cohen, one of the Studio City developers of the La Maida Street project, said the proposal sounded fair. But neighborhood activists, who want an archeological survey conducted before grading begins, on Thursday called the committee’s recommendations inadequate.

If the committee “is saying all they’re going to do is put someone there to monitor truckloads of dirt leaving the site, that would not be satisfactory,” said Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino. “It fails to preserve the site before it’s destroyed.”

Kathy Lewis of the Encino Property Owners Assn. agreed, saying she was concerned that artifacts could be destroyed by bulldozers before experts see them. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said.

But Silver and Lewis both added that they would be satisfied if the staff of the Center for Public Archeology at Cal State Northridge was content with the committee’s plan. A university archeologist confirmed Thursday that the center had advised city planners on appropriate procedure.

The archeologist, Dana Bleitz, said grading monitors walk along with bulldozers and are trained to spot color and texture changes in the soil that indicate the presence of artifacts. “You’re right there, so the stuff just doesn’t pop up,” said Bleitz. Experienced bulldozer operators can prevent the blade from digging deeply enough to disturb remains, she said.

The “Lost Village” was discovered through such a process, Bleitz said.

That site, where more than 1 million artifacts were found, got its name when it was identified as the remnants of an Indian village documented by 18th-Century Spanish explorers that was lost to generations of archeologists who had hunted for it. An office building was erected on it after removal of artifacts, which are in the custody of archeologists, and skeletons, which were given to an Indian group to rebury.