Attorney General Bonta Intervenes in Lawsuit Challenging Approval of Betabel Commercial Development to Protect Tribal Cultural Resources

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today was granted intervention in a lawsuit challenging San Benito County’s approval of the Betabel Commercial Development. In the lawsuit, the Attorney General filed a petition in intervention alleging the County's approval of the project's Environmental Impact Report (EIR) violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), including CEQA’s requirement that the

County consult with California Native American tribes and address impacts to tribal cultural resources that would be irreparably harmed by the project. Located on the ancestral lands of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the proposed 108,425 square-foot commercial site would be situated within a tribal cultural landscape known as Juristac, which holds significant spiritual and historical value. The Attorney General’s petition in intervention requests the court to order the County to withdraw its existing Final EIR, reopen tribal consultation under requirements added to CEQA by Assembly Bill (AB) 52, fully analyze the project’s impacts on tribal cultural resources, and consider feasible mitigation requested by the Tribe. 

“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,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Today’s petition challenging the County’s decision to approve the Betabel project, without complying with its consultation obligations with the Tribe, seeks to address the potential irreparable harms to the cultural landscape and resources of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. 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. At the California Department of Justice, we’re dedicated to elevating the voices of California’s tribal communities in asserting their rights under the law concerning their ancestral lands.”

CEQA includes important procedural requirements for public agencies to consult with tribes that are traditionally or culturally affiliated with a project site and analyze project impacts on tribal cultural resources during their environmental review process for a project. The statute recognizes the expertise and knowledge of California Native American tribes with regards to their tribal history, practices, and cultural resources, and upholds tribes’ rights to participate in and contribute their knowledge to CEQA’s environmental review process. Furthermore, CEQA requires that tribal consultation must be “meaningful and timely” so that tribal cultural resources can be identified, and culturally-appropriate mitigation and monitoring programs can be adopted by the lead agency.

San Benito County rushed through its tribal consultation process such that it did not sufficiently consider or address impacts to tribal cultural resources.  As a result, several tribal cultural resources were not identified in the Draft EIR, and thus the impacts on those resources were not adequately analyzed or disclosed, and mitigation for those impacts was not considered by the decision-makers or the public. The County’s failure to meaningfully and timely consult with the Tribe and its failure to analyze and mitigate impacts to tribal cultural resources violated CEQA.

The petition alleges the County violated CEQA because it failed to:

• Analyze impacts to all tribal cultural resources in the Draft EIR and adopt mitigation specific to each of these resources in the Final EIR.
• Begin consultation with the Tribe within 30 days of their request for consultation, as directed by the statute.
• Consult on topics, such as recommended mitigation measures or significant impacts on tribal cultural resources, as requested by the Tribe and directed by the statute.

The Attorney General originally sought to intervene in this lawsuit in San Benito County Superior Court in March 2023. But before the Court ruled on the Attorney General’s motion to intervene, it dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the Tribe and other petitioners in a related lawsuit had not met CEQA’s deadline for filing suit. The Tribe and other petitioners appealed that decision, and the Attorney General submitted an amicus brief in support of the appeal. The Sixth District Court of Appeal agreed with the Tribe and our Office that the lawsuit was timely. That decision sent the case back to the trial court and on December 31, 2024, the Court vacated its prior dismissal, restarting the litigation.

California Attorney General Bonta is committed to protecting the rights of California’s tribal communities in the CEQA process. In July 2022, the Attorney General raised concerns regarding Riverside County’s analysis of a project’s tribal cultural resource impacts in a CEQA comment letter. In that comment letter, he urged the County to analyze impacts to tribal cultural resources with the same level of rigor as analyses of other environmental resources.  Also, the Attorney General filed amicus briefs in support of the Koi Nation in litigation against the City of Clearlake, first in October 2023 in the superior court and then in in July 2024 in the court of appeal. The amicus briefs argued that the City’s tribal consultation did not meet the statutory requirements. Also, the briefs argued that the City’s reliance solely on archaeological studies to identify and analyze impacts to tribal cultural resources was in error, and that the tribe’s cultural values must be considered when determining impacts and mitigation. The case is still pending before the court of appeal and oral argument has not yet been set. 

A copy of the Attorney General’s motion to intervene, which includes the petition, is available here. The court's minute order is available here.