NEWPORT BEACH : Panel to See New Cemetery Expansion Plan

The Planning Commission will see a new version today of a plan to expand Pacific View Memorial Park--one that has been hotly contested by residents of the nearby Spyglass Hill and Broadmoor Sea View neighborhoods.

Those objecting to the plan want the cemetery owners, SCI/Pierce Brothers Co., to locate three to five new mausoleum complexes on the other side of the cemetery, overlooking Big Canyon Reservoir--which would take them out of the ocean view from $1-million-plus homes.

SCI representatives insisted on keeping the mausoleums on the Pacific View Drive side of the park and came up with a plan a month ago they hoped would be more palatable for residents. But the Planning Commission sent SCI back to the drawing board.

Since then, “we have been in discussions with the residents that live adjacent to the cemetery over the last few weeks. We’re close to having an agreement,” SCI spokesman David Paine said.

Commissioners objected to both the location and design of the mausoleums, which would put burial spaces near homes on Carmel Bay Drive and Monterey Circle. The new plan includes increasing the setbacks in those areas--initially proposed to be 30 feet--to a minimum of 60 feet and a maximum of 84 feet. SCI has also agreed to grade, irrigate and landscape those areas before construction begins to shield the project from homeowners’ views.

The commission gave the thumbs-down to plans for family crypts and courtyards between the mausoleums, which would have monuments as well as flat, ground-level grave markers.

Commissioners also said they want assurances from SCI that the mausoleums will be built at least three years apart, so nearby residents will not have to live with continuous construction during an expansion that is expected to take up to 15 years.