(Tribune News Service) — The Anaheim Planning Commission gave its approval Monday, June 17, for Orange County’s first veterans cemetery to be built in Anaheim Hills’s Gypsum Canyon.

The commission’s 6-0 vote moves the project for the county to build a 283-acre cemetery that will be half for veterans and half for public use to the City Council for consideration.

Orange County is the largest county in the state without a veterans cemetery. Years of failed efforts to secure a location in Irvine led to proposals to instead open one in Anaheim Hills where the Orange County Cemetery District was already planning a new location.

“We won’t die without getting this through,” said Nick Berardino, president of the Veterans Alliance of Orange County and a Marine Corps veteran, during public comment.

The proposal is to split the site to create a 126-acre public cemetery owned by the Orange County Cemetery District and the 157-acre Southern California Veterans Cemetery owned by the cemetery district and the California Department of Veterans Affairs. The veterans cemetery would have dedicated spaces for veterans of allied nations and first responders.

Officials say more cemeteries are needed in the county. Of the three lower-cost public cemeteries the county operates, only El Toro Memorial Park in Lake Forest still has casket space.

General Manager of the Orange County Cemetery District Tim Deutsch said the 650 or so remaining casket spaces at El Toro Memorial Park are expected to run out by 2026.

The proposed 126-acre public cemetery would fulfill interment needs for the next 30 years, according to a county consultant’s letter for the project.

Both the veterans cemetery and the public cemetery would be built out in phases. The veterans cemetery would have space for more than 210,000 burials, the majority for holding cremation remains.

The public cemetery would have space for 150,000 burials.

The Gypsum Canyon property is undeveloped land next to the 91 Freeway near Santa Ana Canyon Road that was once a sand and gravel mining operation that closed in 2004. The Irvine Company donated it to the county and the OC Board of Supervisors conveyed it to the cemetery district several years ago.

Several veterans who spoke during public comment said Anaheim has been more welcoming than Irvine to building a veterans cemetery in the city.

“In Irvine, we were booed and hissed at public meetings,” Bernardino said. “The way we were treated when we came home from Vietnam. In Anaheim, we were treated with affection and appreciation. That has a significance really for Vietnam veterans as we enter in the evening of our lives. Being treated with dignity and respect means so much to each of us.”

The main concern for the project brought up by residents during the Planning Commission meeting was the potential for traffic issues in the area. Olivia Marsh, who lives in the Anaheim Hills, said she was neutral on the project, but more work needs to be done to address traffic congestion. Marsh expressed strong concern about evacuations during a wildfire potentially being hindered by additional traffic from the cemetery.

“Issues have to be addressed in the transportation,” Marsh said.

City officials have said traffic from the cemetery wouldn’t impose an undue burden on streets and freeways in the area. There would be no more than four burial services a day each at the veterans cemetery and public cemetery, according to the plans the commission approved. The proposal calls for the cemetery to be open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, there could be ceremonies including a three-volley salute using rifles.

A funding gap remains to get the veterans cemetery built. Phase one would take 10 years and cost $123 million to develop. So far, only $45 million in funding from the county and state are pledged, though more money is being sought through a federal grant.

Bernardino said the veterans cemetery will apply for $10 million in federal funding in the next few weeks. Further cost savings will be achieved by the veterans site sharing costs with the public cemetery, he said.

The City Council is expected to vote on the cemeteries at a meeting in July.

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