3 - The Bowery_PUBLIC COMMENT_RAMSEY

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5.0 Environmental Setting 5.3 Cultural/Historical Resources Avion Project SEIR Page 5.3-1 5.3 Cultural/Historical Resources This section evaluates potential impacts to historical resources associated with the project. The following discussion is based on the Historical Resources Survey Report (RECON 2019b) and Results of the Cultural Resources Testing Program for CA-SDI-18,428 and CA-SDI-18,429 (RECON 2019c) prepared by RECON and included as Appendices C-1 and C-2, respectively. 5.3.1 Relationship to the Black Mountain Ranch (Subarea I) Subarea Plan The analysis in this section updates the cultural resources analysis in the 1998 Environmental Impact Report (EIR), with an emphasis on effects that were not addressed in the previous report. Since the preparation of the 1998 EIR, nine previously unidentified archaeological sites were detected in the project area. 5.3.2 Existing Conditions The project is located on the northern slope of Black Mountain, approximately 0.6 mile south of Carmel Valley Road/Bernardo Center Drive. Topographically, the project site is located at the upper end of a broad north-south trending valley. A ridgeline occurs in the central portion of the site that rises in elevation from north to south from 740 feet mean sea level to 915 feet mean sea level. The ridge is bounded by two small canyons, one to the east and one to the west, with one main drainage course and smaller tributaries in each. These drainages have slopes of moderate to steep grade. There is a small meadow in the northwest corner of the property, at the mouth of the eastern drainage. Topography slopes away to the north from the north edge of the property, eventually meeting the La Jolla Valley, about one mile to the north. One soil type occurs on the site, San Miguel- Exchequer rocky silt loam (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1973). This relatively shallow rocky soil is derived from metavolcanic parent materials. As described in Section 5.2.2.1, four vegetation communities occur on the project site. Southern mixed chaparral comprises the majority of the site, with lesser acreages of coastal sage scrub, non-native grassland, and freshwater marsh patches. 5.3.2.1 Cultural Setting a. Prehistoric Period The prehistoric cultural sequence in San Diego County is generally conceived as comprising three basic periods: the Paleoindian, dated between about 11,500 and 8,500 years ago and manifested by the artifacts of the San Dieguito Complex; the Archaic, lasting from about 8,500 to 1,500 years ago (A.D. 500) and manifested by the cobble and core technology of the La Jollan Complex; and the Late Prehistoric, lasting from about 1,500 years ago to historic contact (i.e., A.D. 500 to 1769) and represented by the Cuyamaca Complex. This latest complex is marked by the appearance of ceramics, small arrow points, and cremation burial practices.