VENTURA : Deal to Protect Burial Grounds

An unlikely coalition of Chumash leaders, veterans and developers has agreed to share about 100 acres in east Ventura, protecting burial grounds and making room for a future veterans’ home and memorial.

Representatives from each of the three interests signed an agreement this week that allows developers Wittenberg-Livingston Homes to proceed with plans to build more than 400 residences on the property.

The deal sets aside about 18 acres near Telephone Road and Saticoy Avenue that could be used for a proposed veterans’ retirement home and an additional four acres to preserve the burial grounds.

The Orange County-based development firm offered to donate the land for the memorial and home. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

“We pulled off a pretty good one,” said LeRoy Andrews, a veterans’ issues activist. “I’ve been working on it for three years.”

The state is building four veterans’ retirement homes but has already awarded three of the sites. Supervisor John K. Flynn, who helped negotiate the deal, said the Saticoy site has a 90% chance of being designated as the last home.

“It’s a fairly ideal site,” he said. “It’s what the state has been looking for and it meets their requirements. And, we have a lot of veterans who live in the tri-county area.”

Susan Sandoval, a leader in the local Chumash community, which once populated most of what is now Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, said she was glad that her ancestry will finally be recognized.

“It took a lot of consistency, faith and patience,” she said. “It needed to be done for our people. We’re like everybody else here, but we do have our culture.”