ANAHEIM, Calif.—Orange County officials celebrated a groundbreaking for a new veterans cemetery at Gypsum Canyon in Anaheim Hills on Dec. 8 with the planting of a flagpole.
To further advance the project, state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) amended a Senate bill to order a feasibility study on the Gypsum Canyon site, which is a necessary step in getting the state’s approval of the project.
“The purpose of the bill is to determine the feasibility of a cemetery in Anaheim Hills, and it’s been my hope and desire all along that we would have a veterans cemetery in Orange County, and this expedites the process,” Umberg told City News Service.
“It also provides that the funding is expedited. Now we will wait and see what happens. I assume the county will fund the study and we'll wait and see what the feasibility is.”
In July, Anaheim City Council members voted to support the Gypsum Canyon site. Orange County supervisors have committed $20 million for the project.
In October, the Irvine City Council became the final city in the county to back the Anaheim Hills project, which was notable because Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran has been a proponent for years of building a cemetery in his city.
Agran has backed the Amended and Restated Development site, also known as ARDA, at the Great Park in Irvine on the north side at the end of a runway on the old base.
Proposals in Irvine at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and elsewhere have stalled after years of studies and discussions.
The Irvine City Council previously committed to building the Great Park Veterans Cemetery Initiative in May 2020 and designating the ARDA site for the purpose after the state approved over $25 million for the site.
The project came to a standstill on June 22 when the Irvine City Council took no action to construct a Veterans Memorial Park and Cemetery at the Great Park, following long debates paired with mixed opinions from the public.
