NEWPORT BEACH : Cemetery Expansion Plans to Be Discussed

The Planning Commission has just one item on its agenda today, but it promises to be a contentious one: expansion plans for Pacific View Memorial Park.

The plans, which have been in the works for more than a year, are hotly contested by residents of the Spyglass Hill and Broadmoor Sea View neighborhoods.

The cemetery owner, Pierce Brothers Co., has had plans to expand the facility since the early 1970s. The planned expansion does not involve moving the boundaries of the cemetery but would include adding community and family mausoleums, a garden crypt, a maintenance building, garage and sales office and roads to the new buildings and graves.

City planners have asked for plants and landscaping on the tops of new structures to make them less objectionable to residents.

Although a panel of city officials, residents and cemetery representatives have worked since last April to devise a plan that will please everyone, many residents are unhappy with the result.

Residents in the adjoining neighborhoods, much of which were developed after the cemetery was established, have complained that the expansion will bring down their property values.

Cemetery owners contend that their original permits give them the right to build out the cemetery.