Environmentalists and local Chumash members are trying to block a plan to build 20 homes in the Santa Barbara foothills because the site may contain the ancient burial remains of up to 400 Indians.
As the plan for the Preserve at San Marcos heads to the Planning Commission at 9 a.m. today, the groups are complaining that the project disregards a 2001 report citing evidence of a thousand-year-old Indian village on the site where several homes are now proposed.
"This is a major village site," said Roberta Cordero, a leader in the local Chumash community. "They need to do further studies."
In a letter Wednesday, Linda Morgan, an archaeological resource specialist for the Barbareno Chumash Council, asked developer Jeff Bermant for permission to survey the site -- a request he has denied.