Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/veterans-cemetery/)
Orange County’s first veterans cemetery got $20 million in state funding when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the budget, but the cemetery has yet to find a site in Irvine after battles between the city and the state legislature.
The official location of the proposed Southern California Veterans Cemetery in Irvine remains unclear after the California Senate Veterans Affairs Committee moves legislation naming one site, while Irvine is looking at another one.
Irvine Mayor Christina Shea wants Gov. Gavin Newsom to visit her city to review competing properties to establish a veterans cemetery. Shea is opposed to the current site advocated by State Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk Silva in her recent legislation on the issue and instead argues a nearby golf course site should house the proposed veterans’ cemetery site.
State lawmakers back the original site for a veterans’ cemetery just after Irvine planning commissioners vote for another option at a nearby site originally proposed as a golf course.
Nick Berardino – president of Valor, the Veterans Alliance of Orange County and President of Heroes Hall Foundation – talks about the challenges facing what he calls America’s most disrespected minority, veterans, as well as the quest for a veterans cemetery in OC.
The county is transferring property on the eastern edge of Anaheim for potential development as a veterans and civilian cemetery. Supervisors clashed over whether it would let Irvine “off the hook” for a proposed veterans cemetery at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro.
The Irvine Planning Commission wants to send the City Council as fast as possible all available environmental reports and any potential development contracts in or near the Great Park that could affect development of a veterans cemetery.
The city of Anaheim will study the use of a 280-acre county-owned property in Anaheim Hills for a countywide veterans cemetery, after the City Council voted unanimously to work with the county and other interest groups on a feasibility study.
Jeanne Baran, Irvine resident and member of the Irvine Watchdog citizens group, writes that the Irvine City Council continues to debate the Veterans cemetery ignoring the results of the June election.
The location of Orange County’s first veterans cemetery remains unclear after the Irvine City Council directed staff to identify a site in or around the Great Park and put the project through the planning process. Councilman Jeff Lalloway brought a motion Tuesday night to reinstate original cemetery site near the heart of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, adjacent to the Great Park. But, before it could go to a vote, Mayor Don Wagner introduced a substitute motion that directs different commissions and city staff to start studying the original site and explore other city-owned land. “Give me a site,” Wagner told Voice of OC after the meeting. “You tell me where it can be … is it a golf course (that’s slated to be built in the Great Park)?