From Irvine to Eternity : Resident Urges Council to Plot Cemetery So He Won’t Have to Spend Afterlife Out of Town

This master-planned city may be a nice place to live, but once you’re dead you’ve got to leave town.

Irvine resident Richard DeLapp says that when his time comes he would like to be buried in his hometown. But Irvine, with a population of 124,000, is the largest Orange County city without a graveyard.

“I’m not interested in being interred in Santa Ana or Lake Forest or Newport Beach,” the 72-year-old World War II veteran told the City Council on Tuesday night, urging city officials to designate land for a cemetery. “We need to get started and establish a location.”

Council members say the search for a suitable cemetery location is one of the issues under review in the city’s ongoing General Plan update.

“We are a planned community without a plan for those who want to be buried here,” Councilwoman Paula Werner said. “I don’t think that’s a complete plan.”

The 24-year-old city was without a hospital until 1990, when the Irvine Medical Center opened.

“We need to complete the life cycle of the city of Irvine,” said DeLapp, a retired engineer.

Land between Sand Canyon and Laguna Canyon roads near the San Diego Freeway was designated as a cemetery site on the city’s 1986 General Plan, according to City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr., but dropped from the plan in 1989. Brady said he does not know why the cemetery site was deleted from the plan.

“It’s probably an idea whose time has come,” Irvine Mayor Michael Ward said. “We’re a very young city, but now people have lived here for almost 25 years.”

The lack of cemetery space has not been an issue among members of the city’s Senior Council, according to President Clarence Nedom.

“We’re more interested in the immediate needs of our seniors, such as transportation,” he said. “I imagine this will be an issue for us, in due time.”

Councilman Greg Smith said he would like to see plans renewed for a cemetery before the city is completely developed. “Doing it now while we still have a lot of open space really does make a lot of sense,” he said.

In neighboring Corona del Mar, for example, it took the 36-year-old Pacific View Memorial Park 14 months of negotiations with nearby residents to win approval for plans to add a mausoleum to the 46-acre cemetery. The Newport City Council approved the plans Monday.

“Trying to put a cemetery in Irvine after the city is all built out would probably be a nightmare,” Smith said.

The Sand Canyon Road acreage originally designated for a memorial park in the city would still be an ideal location for a cemetery, according to DeLapp, who said he still has plenty of time to wait.

“I’m not ready to go yet,” he said. “I’d like to see this thing through.”