The Irvine City Council is moving ahead with a plan to build a Veterans Memorial Park AND an active cemetery right in the middle of our Great Park neighborhood.
✅ We support a Veterans Memorial. That's not in question.
⚠️ But adding an active cemetery near schools, parks, and family homes? That's a major concern for our entire community.
👉 Just want to take action?
You don't need to read the whole thing — all the steps to stop the cemetery are at the top of this document. The rest is background information if you want to understand how we got here.
1 Civic Center Plaza, Irvine CA 92606
⚠️ PARKING IMPACTED at Civic Center Lot
✓ ADDITIONAL PARKING at Bill Barber Park
The main Civic Center parking lot has reduced capacity due to construction.
Bill Barber Park is located off Harvard Avenue & San Juan.
A shuttle service will be provided between Bill Barber Park and City Hall.
Another parking option is available in the lot adjacent to the corner of Barranca and Harvard.
⚠️ Important: Be respectful but firm in your opposition. Personal stories about how the cemetery would impact your family are especially powerful.
"We fully support honoring our veterans with dignity. The question isn't whether to create a memorial, but where to place it. Gypsum Canyon offers the space and setting our veterans deserve."
— Joint statement from community organizations
📌 Due Date: Please add a comment before the hearing.
I support honoring our veterans with a beautiful Memorial Park, but I strongly oppose adding an active cemetery at the ARDA site.
The Great Park is a vibrant, growing neighborhood — a cemetery doesn't belong next to homes, parks, and schools.
Please support Gypsum Canyon instead — a site with state support, regional consensus, and proper space.
📌 Due Date: Please email before the hearing.
This will send an email to: [email protected]
Subject: Oppose Cemetery in the Great Park
Message Preview:
Dear Council Members,
I support honoring our veterans with a beautiful Memorial Park, but I strongly oppose adding an active cemetery at the ARDA site.
The Great Park is a vibrant, growing neighborhood — a cemetery doesn't belong next to homes, parks, and schools.
Please support Gypsum Canyon instead — a site with state support, regional consensus, and proper space.
Send Email Now📧 Take it one step further – email each councilmember individually to show how much this matters:
The ARDA site at Great Park was offered to the State to build a veterans cemetery. Sounds simple — but things got complicated fast.
A plan was proposed to move the cemetery to the Strawberry Fields — a site near the I-5 and Bake Parkway, by the El Toro Y freeway interchange. The goal was to shift the cemetery away from neighborhoods.
However, this required a land swap, and Measure B was put on the ballot. 63% of Irvine voters said NO. Their opposition was primarily aimed at the controversial land swap with a private developer — not a vote in favor of keeping the cemetery at the Great Park.
There was widespread concern that developers would profit while residents would bear the consequences.
There was also widespread confusion during the campaign, and many residents later reported feeling misled about what their vote actually meant.
Councilmember Larry Agran co-authored a "citizen-led initiative" — a formal California process where residents can propose a new law by collecting voter signatures. This initiative aimed to rezone the ARDA site exclusively for a veterans cemetery.
Nearly 20,000 residents signed — but signing a petition is not a vote. Many people signed to allow the issue to be discussed or placed on a ballot.
However, instead of putting it to voters, Agran and the City Council adopted the ordinance directly.
The Council voted 4–1 to approve the zoning change without public vote. Then-Mayor Christina Shea pushed for it to go to the November ballot.
This decision locked in cemetery-only zoning at the ARDA site — without direct voter input.
Even though Gypsum Canyon is progressing, Agran wants to bring construction back to the Great Park. There's no new vote, and many residents still don't know this is happening.
Let's build a Memorial Park that honors veterans — without placing a cemetery in the heart of where we live.
📢 Spread the word. Email the Council. Show up.
📱 Share this website with friends and neighbors!
This is our neighborhood. Let's protect it together.