California Attorney General Suing Over CEQA Violations Involving Ancestral Remains

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing the City of Poway alleging it violated the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to respond to discoveries of burials of ancestral human remains and cultural resources during the construction of a luxury housing project.

Developer Shea Homes began construction of “Hidden Valley Ranch” in October 2025, but it quickly encountered ancestral remains and other culturally important Tribal resources on land the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians believes is likely a Tribal cemetery and sacred place, according to the California Department of Justice.

A CEQA environmental impact report was completed for the previous landowner in 2003, but CEQA can require additional steps when there are significant changes in circumstances and new information.

According to the DOJ, the City of Poway failed to engage with Shea Homes or the San Pasqual Band to revise the EIR despite the discoveries. In the lawsuit, Bonta alleges that the city violated CEQA by failing to reopen review of the project before taking recent action to allow construction at the site.

The remains involve the Kumeyaay Nation, an indigenous people whose ancestral lands span from Baja California in Mexico into San Diego and Imperial Counties from the Pacific Ocean to the mountains and desert. Within the United States, the Kumeyaay Nation includes 12 federally recognized sovereign Tribes, including the San Pasqual Band and the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. The Kumeyaay Nation has elected to be notified of ancestral human remains identified within California through a consortium body of which both the San Pasqual Band and the Viejas Band are members. On April 17, 2026, the San Pasqual Band informed the city of its intent to file a CEQA petition.

In 2025, a Viejas Band Tribal monitor found an ancestral human bone protruding from the ground. In March, two more ancestral human remains were discovered on the property. Thousands of Tribal cultural resources and culturally significant items have been found across the site over the years, indicating that the site was likely a village.

Bonta’s suit argues that the City of Poway violated CEQA by failing to:

• Reopen CEQA review.
• Implement its own policy for the handling of unanticipated discovery of archaeological resources.
• Implement mitigation measures adopted in the 2003 EIR.