Orange County veterans cemetery gets $20 million in state budget, but officials still disagree on location

Three Orange County state legislators announced Friday, June 14, they’ve secured $20 million in the 2019-20 state budget to build a veterans cemetery in Irvine.

Assemblymembers Sharon Quirk-Silva, Tom Umberg and Tom Daly said in a news release the money gives them “renewed enthusiasm” about getting the project going. But earmarked funding is not a guarantee the Orange County Veterans Memorial Park and Cemetery will end up where they want it.

Community leaders, military veterans and their families have long dreamed about a local veterans cemetery, but an unresolved dispute over where to put it has dragged on for more than five years.

And the announcement of funding that falls far short of projected final costs doesn’t lay the site question to rest.

Here’s a rundown on where the project is now and what’s next:

Question: Where could the cemetery be located?

Answer: Three competing sites have been proposed – two in Irvine, where the El Toro Marine base used to be, and one in Anaheim Hills – and each spot has its own supporters.

Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva authored a bill that would designate a 125-acre site at the northern edge of the Orange County Great Park (known as ARDA) as the cemetery’s official location. The Assembly passed it in May and it’s waiting in the state Senate veterans affairs committee.

But that site still holds 77 buildings leftover from the Marine base and would require expensive cleanup. An earlier state study pegged cleaning the property and building a first phase of the cemetery at more than $90 million.

Some Irvine officials, including Mayor Christina Shea, say that’s impractical when other land is available that doesn’t need as much work.

She supports using a chunk of the Great Park intended for a golf course. Irvine officials put a first phase in the ballpark of $59 million.

Finally, county officials have proposed a third location near the 91 Freeway and 241 Toll Road interchange in east Anaheim. Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said it’s hard to guess the cost there because the county plans to use some of the 288 acres as a separate civilian cemetery.

Q. Whatever it ends up costing, who’s going to pay for it?

A. The short answer is probably taxpayers, whether the funding comes mainly from the state or includes reimbursement from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs; Irvine officials have said they’ll donate valuable land, but don’t intend to cover cleanup or construction costs.

It’s unclear how far the $20 million Quirk-Silva announced Friday would go toward a first phase, which would include visitor parking and an administration building plus some burial sites.

Even Irvine Councilwoman Melissa Fox, who shifted her support to Quirk-Silva’s plan after it was written into the bill, said: “We are not as a city able to build this cemetery ourselves.”

Quirk-Silva’s spokesman Josef Holper said besides the $20 million earmark, there’s $4.5 million in a veterans cemetery account from the 2017 budget that can be used, but more money would have to be found to complete the project.

Q. So the site is undetermined, and the funding is uncertain. What happens next?

A. Quirk-Silva’s press release said initial work can begin on the ARDA site now that there’s money to do it. But it’s not that easy.

The Irvine City Council likely won’t donate property until the state can say where all the Phase 1 money will come from.

“If they can come up with $92 million, I’ll be the first person to the table to talk about moving this forward,” Shea said of the ARDA proposal.

Irvine officials are expected to talk designating a final location this month or next – no Irvine site can be built on without the city’s approval.

The state’s $20 million appears to be portable, meaning it’s only earmarked for an Orange County veterans cemetery but not any specific location.

One other uncertainty looms. Last year, Irvine voters killed a city land swap deal that would have put the cemetery on what is now strawberry fields near the interchange of the 5 and 405 freeways.

Former Irvine mayor Larry Agran helped spearhead the 2018 ballot measure that nixed the swap, and he’s already suggested on his news website that he would do it again if officials try to pursue an Irvine site other than ARDA.

That kind of talk leads Wagner to say: “We can stop all the wasteful sending of money and ballot measures and getting people’s political hackles up and put it in Anaheim Hills.”