NEWPORT BEACH : Council to Consider Cemetery Expansion

A Corona del Mar cemetery’s plan to expand, in the works for nearly two years, goes before the City Council today.

Although the plan had bumpy ride through an ad hoc committee and the Planning Commission, the number of project opponents has decreased since cemetery representatives negotiated design points with residents and the commission.

The management of Pacific View Memorial Park has agreed to move some planned buildings and use a combination of design features and landscaping to screen views from adjacent homes throughout the anticipated 15 years of building.

Cemetery operators Pierce Bros. and owners SCI Inc. sought permission to build 79,000 square feet in garden crypts, 12,000 square feet of family mausoleums and 8,100 square feet for a garage, maintenance building and sales office.

Neighboring residents opposed the initial request, saying it would put a “mausoleum city” into their expensive views.

The plan going to the council will allow a 30,000-square-foot administrative office building, 126,700 square feet of community mausoleum and garden crypt space and 12,000 square feet of family mausoleums or buildings of “equivalent bulk.”

But Pacific View will provide wider perimeter buffer areas and follow building plans conceptually approved by the Planning Commission on May 4.

A panel of city officials, residents and cemetery representatives worked for a year to iron out the details. If the council approves, it is expected to schedule a public hearing for June 12.

The cemetery has been located at 3500 Pacific View Drive since it won county approval in 1958, before the land was under the city’s jurisdiction.

Cemetery owners later sold 95 of 140 acres back to the original owner, the Irvine Co.

That part of the property was developed as Spyglass Hill.