City Becoming Site for More Cemeteries

The city has become a major growth area for the sort of amenity many people don’t think about when they consider where to live: cemeteries.

Mount Sinai Memorial Park has nearly completed construction on the first new Jewish cemetery in the greater Los Angeles area in 50 years. The land just off Yosemite Avenue will eventually be the largest Jewish cemetery in Southern California and one of the largest in the nation.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is talking with city planners about a mausoleum at Assumption Cemetery on Fitzgerald Road, the beginning of what is planned as a much larger expansion of Catholic burial services in east Ventura County.

And about 45 acres to the city’s northwest have been targeted for a future cemetery.

About 10 years ago, Mount Sinai realized that it was running out of space at its Hollywood Hills cemetery, said Arnold Saltzman, Mount Sinai general manager.

The choice of Simi Valley goes beyond land availability, proximity to Los Angeles or the beauty of the shoulders of the Simi Hills. The Jewish community in Ventura County has grown, Saltzman said.

Meanwhile, the archdiocese has mapped out its plans for a mortuary, chapel and four mausoleums in Simi Valley. Assumption Cemetery serves east Ventura County and the west end of the San Fernando Valley. Churches served by the cemetery since it opened in 1971 include St. Peter Claver and St. Rose of Lima in Simi Valley.