[1][4][5] In the early 1970s, a 2.2-acre (0.89 ha) area at 1900 Fourth Street within the site was paved and became a parking lot for Spenger's Fish Grotto, a restaurant that operated from 1890 to 2018.
[5] Protests against the development of the site were strengthened after two sets of ancient human remains were discovered during construction at 1919 Fourth Street, outside the previously established boundaries of the shellmound.
[8] The City of Berkeley did not grant permission for the proposed development in either form, partly in response to Indigenous activists including Corrina Gould, a local Lisjan Ohlone leader, and organizations including the Coalition to Save the West Berkeley Shellmound and Indian People Organizing for Change.
The developers sued the city; in 2019, a judge ruled in favor of the city,[9][10] but on April 20, 2021, a three-justice panel of the California Court of Appeal unanimously declared that "[t]here is no evidence in the record that the Shellmound is now present on the project site in a state that could reasonably be viewed as an existing structure, nor even remnants recognizable as part of a structure" that would be disturbed by the development and that the project could proceed.
Gould's plan is to uncover the creek and use the site for a park surrounding a vegetated mound 40 feet (12 m) tall housing an educational and memorial center.