Quality of Life

Native American Remains Delay New Housing Development

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published August 22, 2011 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

As developers explore where to build new housing in San Diego’s back country, they're coming up against an increasingly common hurdle. Native Americans inhabited the whole area, and their burial sites are turning up on plots where new homes are planned.

Meadowood is one of four large developments proposed for Interstate 15 north of Escondido at the junction of Highway 76. It would add more than 800 homes in an area where the County’s new General Plan Update calls for more growth. But plans are on hold, following the recent discovery of Indian bone fragments on the site.

David Singleton is with California’s Native American Heritage Commission. He said there may be as many as 10,000 Native American archeological sites already on record in San Diego County

“Our recommendation,” he said, “is that the developer avoid those areas where it is known there are sacred sites, or burial grounds. It’s a crime included in the California criminal code for a developer to destroy a native American burial site.”

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Singleton said one of his goals is to provide developers with information about where those sacred sites are. However, he said some local tribes are reluctant to reveal that information.

Singleton said Native Americans are not against development, and are willing to negotiate with developers, and in this case the Luiseno Indians will negotiate with Pardee.

If the development cannot be moved, a possible option is to find a suitable alternative location where bones can be buried, with a guarantee the ground will not be disturbed again.

The San Diego Planning Commission will resume hearings on the Meadowood plan on October 7th.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.