06.17.2024 - Harvey Bronx
Heather Flores
From:harveybronx@cox.net
Sent: 1:27 PM
To:Planning Commission
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Planning Commission meeting of June 17th, Agenda Item 1, objection to
submittal of merely an Amendment
Attachments:2024
_Memo_and_Geosyntec_Report_Comparing_Vet_Cemetery_on_ARDA_w_Gypsum_Cyn.
pdf
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Re: Planning Commission meeting of June 17, 2024, Item 1 Development Application No.
2020-00204
Dear City of Anaheim Planning Commissioners:
You are probably aware of the recent CalVet report that estimated the price to build the State
Veterans Cemetery at Gypsum Canyon at $126 million.
That report provoked the City of Irvine to commission a report (attached) that would compare
building the State Veterans Cemetery at Gypsum Canyon with building it on the ARDA site in
the Great Park in Irvine, where the Irvine City Council first designated its location in 2014!
The attached report concludes that it would cost at least $100 million more to build on Gypsum
Canyon than in Irvine, and it would take 10 years, compared to 3-4 years in Irvine. Our
conclusion is that there will never be a State Veterans Cemetery built at Gypsum
Canyon. Instead, it will be built in the Great Park in Irvine, where it was originally designated
to be built in 2014. See A BRIEF HISTORY, below.
Further, we object to the OCCD’s submittal of an Amendment to a 2005 EIR regarding the
Gypsum Canyon site instead of a new EIR as violating both the requirements and intention of
CEQA, as follows:
1) The project proposed in 2005, a residential development, has nothing to do with the
currently proposed project—a cemetery!
2) The current environmental conditions are very different from what was recognized in
2005.
3) Substantial geotechnical issues were discovered since 2005 that were unknown in 2005.
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Regardless how extensive the Amendment is in addressing the many issues to which I refer, it
appears that the sole reason to avoid submittal of a new EIR is that a new EIR would require a
public review and comment period and an Amendment does not.
The forces supporting a Veterans Cemetery and a public cemetery at Gypsum Canyon
presumably do not want to alert the environmental organizations opposed to the project to give
adequate time for a response and to avoid time for a show of public outrage to develop.
Hence, our organization objects to submittal of an Amendment rather than a new EIR for the
cemetery project as violating the CEQA. And we will take further actions as necessary to
ensure that the CEQA is observed.
A BRIEF HISTORY: Since June of 2016, when CalVet released its conceptual design
(Concept Plan) of the State Veterans Cemetery on the ARDA site, all it has taken for Irvine to
begin negotiations for the transfer of the ARDA site to the State for construction of the Veterans
Cemetery has been 3 votes of the Council—a vote that has not been forthcoming.
However, the future holds great promise for achieving a majority vote because the State
Veterans Cemetery is very popular among Irvine residents. That is proven by two successful
signature-gathering efforts of almost 20,000 signatures.
The first was for a Referendum that overturned a rezoning of the ARDA site for commercial
development that overwhelmingly won by a 63% to 37% margin.
The second was for a ballot Initiative that exclusively rezoned the ARDA site for a State
Veterans Cemetery that was adopted by the Irvine City Council on May 12, 2020. Nothing that
doesn’t comport with a State Veterans Cemetery can be built on that site, and it is still available
for that purpose.
Beginning in 2017, after the CalVet design (Concept Plan) for the State Veterans Cemetery on
the ARDA site was released, we began our fight with developer FivePoint Communities who
wanted the 125-acre ARDA site for their own development. And after our Initiative was
adopted, it’s possible that FivePoint didn’t want a cemetery near their development because of
possible opposition from its dominant Chinese community.
In conclusion, it is unlikely that a State Veterans Cemetery will ever be built at Gypsum
Canyon.
Respectfully,
Harvey H Liss
Harvey H. Liss, P.E., Ph.D.
Executive Director
Build the Great Park Veterans Cemetery
buildthegreatparkveteranscemetery.org
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