NEWPORT BEACH : Cemetery Permitted to Keep War Memorial

The City Council has reversed its decision ordering Pacific View Memorial Park operators to dismantle a war memorial that was erected without permits.

The council decided Monday to allow the memorial, called the Garden of Valor, to remain and approved plans for a 168,000-square-foot expansion of the cemetery, expected over the next 15 to 30 years.

The $250,000 memorial consists of six granite columbaria, which are each six feet high, 10 feet long and two feet wide. Four are dedicated to branches of the military, one to law enforcement and one to firefighters. Each contains 32 niches for the ashes of those who have died in the line of duty, and the group is surrounded by service-related flags.

Cemetery General Manager Steve Schacht said a ring of trees also is planned around the memorial near the entrance to the Corona del Mar cemetery, at the council’s insistence.

Some residents regarded the memorial, installed without permits and on a Saturday, as a betrayal of informal agreements limiting construction of aboveground monuments. Others defended it as a worthwhile tribute.

Permits are required for any structure, wall or free-standing monument more than three feet high, senior planner William Ward said. Cemetery officials applied for the permits after residents complained, Ward said.

The council shocked Pacific View officials June 12 by ordering it removed, despite cemetery officials’ protests that they were ignorant of the need for a permit. The council relented Monday.