EDITORIAL:

Imagine if bulldozers plowed through the cemetery where your loved ones were buried? All to build some homes.

We doubt you’d say, “Well, that’s progress.”

OK, maybe that’s too extreme an analogy to make regarding Hearthside Homes’ decision to continue with the company’s development despite unearthing 174 sets of human remains from the Bolsa Chica project and then failing to tell the public.

But what if the development unearthed a cemetery full of Civil War veterans and the company didn’t bother to tell anyone? Just relocated them somewhere.

We should be just as outraged that the California Coastal Commission gave permission to set loose the earthmovers at the Brightwater development despite so much evidence to indicate that the wetlands included an important archaeological site and sacred burial ground.

Here’s what else workers have found there:

• At least 400 cogged stones;

• Artifacts resembling gears;

• Scraping tools, mortars and pestles.

These are obviously the tools of Native Americans, an important archaeological discovery.

And yet we never heard about any of this. Not from Hearthside or the Orange County Coroner.

The California Native American Heritage Commission officials say they weren’t even informed about the remains until December when they should have been informed as each set of remains was discovered. And when was that? When Hearthside broke ground in June 2006. That’s a year and a half.

So what do Hearthside executives have to say about this? Beats us. They refuse to discuss it with our staff. Other reporters have been similarly rebuffed.

There’s no nice way to say this. It looks bad — even suspicious to some.

After Hearthside took hits for its so-called “Wall of Death,” a plexiglass shield around the development that killed several birds, you’d think the company would be quick to respond to public inquiries about more controversy. Instead, it appears the company has decided to dig in with a bunker mentality. That is, to say the least, unwise.

There are many questions about this development. We are owed some answers. And we don’t expect to stand alone in demanding them. City, county and state officials also owe it to the public to seek more details.