Environmental Press # 180

Subj: HELLMAN: Mighty Oak also attacked by John Laing
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 09:47:48 -0800
From: Doug Korthof <doug@seal-beach.org>
To: voiceforveterans@aol.com (via HellmanMesa@SealBeach.org)

Hi,
At the Coastal Commission meeting on Dec. 10, the Cease and Desist Order stopping John Laing Homes from continuing to destroy a probable village and ceremonial sacred site on the Hellman Mesa in Seal Beach was EXTENDED.

John Laing Homes contention that they were "not required" to follow the details of the Coastal Permit was WITHDRAWN by John Laing representatives as they finally agreed that John Laing Homes would be required to follow John Law's requirement: the Coastal Act.

THANKS to 2 wonderful Ladies (Tarren Collins and Mickey Burton) for their comments to the Commission and support, for Mark Massara's great talk on behalf of the Sierra Club, and for Robert Dorame's presentation of pictures and recollections from decades ago of the record of artifacts and ceremonial burials and village implements, some extending into the so-called "Marine Terrace" layer that supposedly predates human habitation.

 

  

Special thanks to Chief Anthony Morales and the 4 monitors (including Dorame) who stood up for the ancestors, the law, and in the memory of Lillian Robles.

To quote some comments by Commissioners:
"...profoundly wrong to catalog these sacred items under our terms and ideas...are we so removed from our common heritage that we cannot, as a people, pay respect to what we treat with disrespect..." "...I do not single out John Laing Homes, this is a problem more generally of our culture and heritage..." "...I hope we begin to elevate [these issues] and begin to understand..." "...I hope that [the mitigation plan] will look to saving this as a site, and not as a collection of disparate items [in museums]..."

LATimes finally got around to the story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-hellman12dec12.story
"The builder of a major housing project in Seal Beach [John Laing Homes] has agreed to comply with a California Coastal Commission order to preserve Native American remains found at the site.

"John Laing Homes will submit, within a week, a plan for handling the 22 sets of remains unearthed since July...

"'I'm very optimistic that we can work something out,' said Steve Kabel, regional president of John Laing Homes..." "...Kabel said the developer...would submit a plan offering several alternatives, including removing and reinterring the remains off site, leaving them undisturbed or moving them...within the project..." "'We are giving serious consideration to setting aside a portion of the development for reburial,' Kabel said. 'It's really up to the parties involved to sit down and come up with a balanced, reasonable mitigation acceptable to everybody.'..."
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HOW TO HELP:
COME TO THE DAILY DEMONSTRATION AGAINST JOHN LAING HOMES DESTRUCTION OF THE MIGHTY OAK http://SaveOldGlory.com EACH NOON TIME AT 12 TO 1:30 IN FRONT OF JOHN LAING HOMES HQ, 895 DOVE STREET, NEWPORT. TAKE THE 405 SOUTH TO THE 73 SOUTH, EXIT AT JAMBOREE (JUST PRIOR TO BECOMING A TOLL ROAD), TURN LEFT AT JAMBOREE, LEFT AGAIN AT N. BRISTOL, DOVE STREET IS THE FIRST STREET TURN RIGHT TO THE 5 STORY BUILDING MARKED "JOHN LAING HOMES".
Pictures on http://LAWetlands.org
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Map of proposed cemetery and sacred site: http://SealBeach.org/map.htm

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