Westwood Cemetery Neighbors See Plot in Downsized Plan

Claiming that a Texas-based cemetery owner is trying to outfox them over a proposed wall of crypts behind their backyards, homeowners said Thursday that hey plan to protest city approval of the expansion of Westwood Village Memorial Park.

A Los Angeles city planner endorsed a scaled-down development plan in findings released this week after Service Corp. International in Houston quietly withdrew a request for permission to build a 1,488-crypt mausoleum directly behind homes on Wellworth Avenue.

The revised plan would allow 463 new casket spaces in a mausoleum about 80 feet from the homes, along with a private 12-casket structure closer to neighbors’ houses.

By removing the larger mausoleum from the development proposal before a city Planning Department hearing officer ruled on it, the company can resurrect the plan later, angry neighbors charged.

“It’s sleazy. They saw right away that their application wasn’t going to go through, so they withdrew part of it so the whole project wouldn’t be turned down by the city,” said homeowner Lili Young. “They’ll slide it in again in the future when we’re not so vigilant.”

Young, an art therapist, said her neighbors plan to appeal hearing officer Jon Foreman’s ruling to the city’s Planning Commission and, if necessary, to the City Council.

The cemetery at 1218 Glendon Ave., near Westwood’s high-rise corridor, has space for 1,126 caskets on nearly three acres. Opened in 1888 as the Sunset Cemetery, it is nearly full.

Because celebrities are interred on its grounds, the cemetery is a Los Angeles landmark. It is the final resting place for such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, Carroll O’Connor and Dean Martin.

Although its owners had initially sought to nearly triple its capacity, a Service Corp. spokesman said the 475-casket expansion was enough to “accommodate our needs for the foreseeable future.”

Opponents of the expansion charged that the last-minute modification of the construction application was a way of keeping the plan for crypts near homeowners’ backyards alive.

“This is a very cagey move by the developer. They knew full well they wouldn’t get approval now for the rear mausoleum,” said Steve Sann, a Westwood real estate consultant. “But they can come back 10 days from now or 10 years and try again.”

Neighbor Elliot Lewis, a real estate investor, said he views the city ruling as “a small victory,” but agreed that the Houston firm “is thinking long-term.”

Company officials could not be reached Thursday for comment. Under Foreman’s ruling, the company must enclose the cemetery with an 8-foot masonry wall.

Young said the residents’ appeal will be based on city zoning laws that require cemetery structures to be at least 300 feet from neighboring residential property lines.

She said the small mausoleum would be near the property line of a pair of undeveloped residential lots on the east side of the cemetery.