Ventura Will Buy Cemetery Land for Interchange
Clearing one of the last hurdles before construction can begin on a new $15.3-million Victoria Avenue and Ventura Freeway interchange, the Ventura City Council has approved an agreement with Ivy Lawn Cemetery to buy 3 acres needed for the project.
The city will pay $995,000 to the cemetery for property south of the Ventura Freeway and Valentine Road, where the new exit will curve to meet Victoria Avenue.
“Ivy Lawn is the final purchase that puts everything into place,” said Nazir Lalani, the city’s transportation engineer.
The purchase is significant because although the city can take most property that lies in the freeway right of way by eminent domain, by law, it cannot take cemetery land.
“We cannot just take cemetery property,” Everett Millais, director of community services, told the council, explaining that an agreement had to be reached between the two parties.
There are no bodies interred in the property purchased by the city, but Lalani said the land had been slated for future cemetery expansion.
Work on the project will begin in January as crews build a new Valentine Road that travels south of its present route by about 200 feet.
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