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3.8 CULTURAL RESOURCES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This section presents the environmental setting and impact assessment for cultural resources in the
County‘s Planning Area. The County’s Planning Area consists of unincorporated land outside of the
City’s boundaries and Sphere of Influence (SOI) but within the One Valley One Vision (OVOV) Planning
Area boundaries. The City’s Planning Area consists of its incorporated boundaries and adopted SOI. Both
the County and the City Planning Areas comprise the OVOV Planning Area. Cultural resources are

defined as prehistoric and historic sites, structures, and districts, or any other physical evidence
associated with human activity considered important to a culture, a subculture, or a community for
scientific, traditional, religious, or any other reason. For analysis purposes, cultural resources may be

categorized into three groups: archaeological resources, historic resources, and contemporary Native
American resources. Paleontological resources, while not generally considered a “cultural resource,” are
afforded protection under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines and as such are
evaluated in this section of the environmental impact report (EIR). All impacts related to cultural and
paleontological resources with the implementation of mitigation measures were found to be less than

significant.

EXISTING CONDITIONS

Prehistory—Paleontology

Resource information on paleontological history is not discussed specifically for the OVOV Planning
Area, but for the Greater Los Angeles Area (Los Angeles County, Orange County, portions of Ventura
County, Riverside County, etc.) as a whole. During the Miocene and Pliocene Periods (23.7 to 1.6 million

years ago), most of the greater Los Angeles Basin and the surrounding hills, including the Santa Clarita
Valley, was submerged. Los Angeles County is one of the richest areas in the world for both fossil marine
vertebrates and land vertebrates from rock deposited over the last 25 million years. Although Rancho La

Brea (in the City of Los Angeles) has been highly publicized, there are many other areas of Los Angeles
County, including the Santa Clarita Valley, that contain equally important fossil occurrences.

The richness of fossils in the County is due to several major series of events in the geologic history of the
area. During the Miocene and Pliocene time (between 1.6 and 23.7 million years ago), most of what is
now the greater Los Angeles Basin and the surrounding hills, including the Santa Clarita Valley and
surrounding mountains, was submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of feet of sand, mud, and

Impact Sciences, Inc. 3.8-1 One Valley One Vision Revised Draft Program EIR
0112.023 County of Los Angeles Area Plan
November 2010