Clear Lake council continues Burns Valley Sports Complex appeal after tribal experts, archaeologist clash over cultural resources

CLEAR LAKE, Calif. — The Clear Lake City Council on June 7 continued a public hearing on the Burns Valley Sports Complex appeal after hours of testimony from tribal representatives, city staff and outside experts who disagreed over how to identify and protect tribal cultural resources under CEQA.

The council heard city-hired archaeologist Dr. White explain a multi-year inventory and trenching program — 38 backhoe trench probes, each roughly 8 feet long and 8–12 feet deep — that identified two intact buried deposits the archaeologist said date about 3,000–5,000 years and that were subsequently avoided in the project redesign. Dr. White also described extensive modern-era redistributed fill and surface obsidian he characterized as transported material that, under CEQA’s integrity standard, may not qualify as historical resources.

Tribal leaders and their cultural‑resources specialists countered that surface scatters, redeposited soils and oral histories constitute substantial evidence of tribal cultural resources across a wider area of the parcel and urged the city to adopt stronger mitigation. Robert Gary, identified as…