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On Feb. 3, California Attorney General Rob Bonta stepped into one of San Benito County’s most controversial issues—the development known as the Betabel Road Project—by backing the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band in its pending lawsuit against the county. Bonta said local officials and developers failed to properly consult the tribe when assessing the impact of the proposed project, which includes a visitor center, gas station, fruit stand and motel planned near the intersection of Hwy 101 and Betabel Road.
“Ensuring that California Native American tribes are consulted about a project’s potential impacts to tribal cultural resources is crucial to support thriving tribal communities in the state,” Bonta said. “Project development and proper tribal consultation under the law are not mutually exclusive, and we’re committed to helping local governments find a sustainable path forward.”
Peter Prows, the attorney representing developers Rider and Victoria McDowell, told BenitoLink that Bonta’s intervention shows that “he doesn’t have an idea” of the case.
“We took the consultation process very seriously, consulted with the tribe for months, and offered a very generous tribal conservation easement,” Prows said. “It was the tribe who backed down.”
The McDowells have spent as much time in court as it took for their project to be conceived.
In December 2022, a month after the project won approval from the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, Protect San Benito County, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the Center for Biological Diversity took it to court. They alleged that the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and state planning and zoning laws when it approved the project. They also claim that the current environmental impact report (EIR) is invalid.
Bonta’s intervention comes as the San Benito County Superior Court is studying the case. The court initially dismissed the lawsuit in May 2023, but the California Sixth District Court of Appeals overturned that decision, sending the case back to the county.
To Bonta, both the county and the developer “rushed through its tribal consultation process such that it did not sufficiently consider or address impacts to tribal cultural resources.” Because of this, Bonta said, the county violated the CEQA, the current EIR should be withdrawn, and the county should reopen the consultation process.
In a letter published by BenitoLink, Rider McDowell said his team hired an attorney he described as “the foremost expert in tribal consultation law” who had helped the California governor’s office write the state’s tribal consultation guidelines, to negotiate with the Amah Mutsun. According to McDowell, they did consult and granted the tribe “everything they asked for.”
McDowell also said that, after the project was approved, the tribe demanded “a seven-figure cash payment,” and demanded that Herman Garcia, the environmentalist who conducted a major cleanup of the former dumpsite, be banned from the property. McDowell labeled this as “extortion.”
Colleen Cabot of South Bay Indigenous Solidarity responded in a letter, also published by BenitoLink, defending the Amah Mutsun. She said that “because the Betabel Project did not consult directly with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band about these cultural resources, the tribe sued to stop the project.”
Sara Clark, the attorney representing the Amah Mutsun, told BenitoLink that although the tribe discussed the project with the McDowells, it was done “too late to have an impact on the county’s decision.” Clark said the consultation occurred between May and September 2022, but what was discussed in those meetings didn’t end up in the hands of the county officials.
“The problem was that the documents the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors relied on didn’t include the consultation,” Clark said. “The consultation was done, but not taken into account.”
Regarding McDowell’s accusation of extortion, Clark said the tribe is “deeply disappointed” by their “characterization of good faith negotiations,” and that they will dispute it with factual information in court.
On the same day of his intervention, Bonta requested access to all the confidential records, which the judge granted. The McDowells appealed that decision. Because of this, both sides believe the case may not be resolved this year.
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