Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/el-toro-marine-corps-air-station/)
Irvine voters will decide June 5 whether Orange County’s first veterans cemetery will be near the heart of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro or on the edge of the onetime base near the interchange of the 5 and 405 freeways.
The location of Orange County’s first veterans cemetery may be decided in Superior Court as the result of a lawsuit filed by former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran.
Elizabeth Brown, president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc, writes that Orange County supervisors are thwarting the will of voters by considering a commercial development Tuesday for 100 acres near Irvine’s Great Park, arguing the area should remain largely a wildlife corridor.
Orange County’s first veterans cemetery was dedicated Friday at what is now strawberry fields near the 5 and 405 interchange, marking a milestone in a battle fought by county veterans for over 15 years.
Although Irvine council members approved a land swap to move the veterans cemetery from near the Great Park to the 5 and 405 interchange, a petition started Oct. 13 could change that.
Orange County’s first veterans cemetery will be 125 acres from the beginning, despite earlier uncertainties, after the Irvine City Council voted 3-2 to transfer all of the land, along with the deed, to the California Department of Veterans Affairs following a land swap with a developer.
During a Friday press conference at the Great Park, Gov. Jerry Brown spoke to reporters after touring two competing sites for a veterans’ cemetery. While supportive of local decision making, Brown remarked about a site near the I-5 Freeway saying he liked the Strawberry fields. A final decision on the location could be reached by June.
Gov. Jerry Brown is scheduled to be in Irvine Friday for a tour of two sites for a proposed veteran’s cemetery, but not all City Council members were invited and it’s not clear who he is talking to.
Developer FivePoint Communities has sent the Irvine City Council its general proposal for moving the proposed Orange County veterans cemetery from the city’s Great Park to a site near the interchange of the 5 and 405 freeways.
Brown and two top Assembly Democratic leaders will visit the proposed veterans cemetery site at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Base in Irvine within the next several weeks.