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       URGENT:       

A HUGE CEMETERY IN PLAIN VIEW

AT GYPSUM CANYON

NEAR 91 FWY AND 241 TOLL RD.

MAY BE COMING, SOON
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Please, send an email to: webmaster@gypsum91.com if you would like to subscribe to important updates regarding this matter.
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Please, take a quick 3 min. survey.
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ONE-CLICK E-MAIL CAMPAIGN #11 (of July 22 and 23, 2024)


This is a  new  (as of July 22, 2024) call to e-mail objections against cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon and against rezoning of the Gypsum Canyon area that would allow for construction of any cemetery or cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon. Your objections will be sent, with a one click, to Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, Mayor Pro Tem Natalie Rubalcava, Council Member Natalie Meeks (District 6), and other Members of the Anaheim City Council, with cc to selected staff members of City of Anaheim, and to the Orange County Cemetery District General Manager Tim Deutsch.

 As of now (July 22, 2024), it appears that everything is in hands of Anaheim City Council. 

If the Council approves the request of the Orange County Cemetery District request to rezone the Gypsum Canyon area in order to allow cemeteries to be built there, OCCD will go ahead and begin building civilian cemetery or cemeteries there while the Veteran's Cemetery project is put on hold due to extremely high cost and a lack of State's funding to pay for it.

And once the burials begin at Gypsum Canyon, there will be no way to stop it or reverse it.

But if the City Council rejects the OCCD request, Gypsum Canyon area will be spared and become an attractive hiking, relaxing, and nature appreciation area for all.

Therefore, it is VERY IMPORTANT that the City Council knows that thousands of residents living in adjacent to Gypsum Canyon areas and hundreds of thousands of commuters stuck in gigantic traffic jams on 91 Fwy keep strongly objecting the cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon plan.

Please, click here to continue reading.

  >>>  Please, click here to join this important campaign.




EXPLOSIVE VIDEO:

"THE BUSIEST CEMETERY IN THE NATION"
planned at Gypsum Canyon and 91 Fwy

Watch this explosive video (1 min. 6 sec.):

Click here if the video above is not supported by your browser.

The above video is an excerpt from the public record of the Irvine City Council meeting on October 26, 2021, during which a "Resolution Supporting the Placement of the Orange County Veterans' Cemetery at the Gypsum Canyon Site in Anaheim Hills" was discussed and adopted. You may find the entire official record by clicking here ; the speech you watched can be found by fast-forwarding the official video to the time slot starting at 2:43:41 and ending at 2:46:52.

You have just watched a respected veteran activist representing a vocal veterans' organization (they even have their own Internet newspaper) in Orange County saying at an official public meeting that OC Veterans' Cemetery will be "the busiest cemetery in the nation" and that "motorcycle escorts for funeral processions" with "hundreds of motorcycles" will be "blocking the intersections all day long" during veterans' funerals. You have heard her describing how "rifle volleys" are going to "scare the citizens and traumatize the children" and how residents' concerns will be amplified by the "sheer number of burials that will be occurring there every day".

Those are ``attractions'' that she would like to spare the residents of Irvine from but wants to impose on the residents of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda. Like if we didn't suffer enough from already unmanageable gigantic traffic jams in the entire area around the 91 Fwy / 241 Toll Rd. interchange during the rush hours. As a result of that extra congestion caused by the "funeral processions", the main East-West artery between Orange and Riverside Counties will be blocked for additional hours, which will have a serious negative impact on est. 250,000 commuters, daily. And Weir Cyn. Rd., East La Palma Ave. and Gypsum Cyn. Rd. traffic will be brought to a stop.

And she did not even mention the environmental damage resulting from covering the scenic landscape of hills at Gypsum Canyon with thousands of graves and tombstones visible from streets and homes of nearby residents.

Never mind that this controversial plan includes building at Gypsum Canyon a large civilian cemetery about the size of the planned Veterans' Cemetery as the first phase of the entire project.

New: In addition to that, this controversial plan now also includes building at Gypsum Canyon the THIRD cemetery for police and firemen.

Ask yourself this question: Would you like all these take place next to where you live?
RESIDENTS AGAINST CEMETERIES at Gypsum Canyon
Would you like the Gypsum Canyon area to become the future Cemetery Center of Orange County?
RESIDENTS AGAINST CEMETERIES at Gypsum Canyon
Remember, once the cemeteries are built and burials take place there, it will be IRREVERSIBLE, no matter how much the people may dislike it. And more cemeteries are likely to follow (there are THREE planned here, already).
RESIDENTS AGAINST CEMETERIES at Gypsum Canyon
So, think twice before you give up on this one.
RESIDENTS AGAINST CEMETERIES at Gypsum Canyon

The updates have been marked with >>> URGENT:, New: or Updated: flag, below.
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Quick links:
Please, take a quick 3 min. survey.
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If you are concerned that huge, 280-acres cemetery that you can see in plain view from where you live could negatively affect your life and lives of your family or lower the value of your home then, please, spread the word by any lawful means that you find appropriate.

Because it is going to be really HUGE (almost half of square mile),conspicuously situated on a prominent hill visible from miles away, and - if constructed as planned - will forever dominate the nearby residential areas. anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery
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You may end up living in a shadow of a huge and dominant cemetery that you will not be able to ignore.

You may end up living in a Cemetery District next to the future Cemetery Center of Orange County.

And the value of your home will likely drop $100,000 or more, while the builders of new homes and cemeteries will make tens of millions of dollars in extra profits, with a help from some influential politicians. anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim

So, please, do something to STOP it.

(Because it will not stop if you just read this and get upset.)

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  >>>  You can email this page's URL address


         gypsum91.com 


to your neighbors, family, and friends,


print and distribute this flier to your neighbors,

or print and distribute this page or this QR code (you can post it in front of your home)

gypsum91.com


that allows to access this page via iPhone or any mobile device.


 >>>  The more people know about this low-profile plan, the less likely it is that it will materialize at this location.


Below is a map of the areas of Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills that are adjacent to the planned location of the cemetery. This cemetery will host a Veterans' Cemetery and a civilian cemetery. Red contour indicates approximate location of the cemetery (an estimate by a resident and not part of the official plan).
(Click on the map to fit it in your page). anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery yorba linda cemetery yorba linda cemetery

Map of the Gypsum Canyon / 91 Fwy area



Below is a picture of the area of that location taken from the street level of Kodiak Mountain Dr. at Alpine Ln. in Yorba Linda. Red contour indicates approximate location of the cemetery (an estimate by a resident and not part of the official plan).

As one can see, the proposed cemetery will bee seen in plain view right from nearby homes and streets.

(Click on the picture for a higher image resolution).


To see more pictures, please click here to visit GALLERY. yorba linda cemetery yorba linda cemetery
If you would like to have your pictures or videos posted there then, please, email them to webmaster@gypsum91.com .
THE CURRENT STATUS

Some veterans' organizations and elected officials are vigorously advocating a plan for a 280-acre Veterans Cemetery and civilian cemetery in Anaheim Hills, south of the 91 Freeway at Gypsum Canyon. (See the map above the picture above and the City of Anaheim website.) The Orange County Board of Supervisors has already voted and approved this location, and so has the City Council of Anaheim - the city that administers the land that is going to host the said cemeteries, according to the current plan. Both bodies are vigorously pushing their plan with total disregard to its seriously detrimental impact that it will have on lives of nearby residents and the environment.

It's worth noting that moving the site of the proposed Veterans' Cemetery from Irvine (previously approved location) to Gypsum Canyon (the new proposed location) is being used as a leverage for Orange County Cemetery District's (a for-profit company partially supported with taxpayers' dollars) old plan, supported by the City Council of Anaheim, to build at Gypsum Canyon a large civilian cemetery about the size of the planned Veterans' Cemetery. Without State of CA's approval of Gypsum Canyon as the site of the Veterans' Cemetery, the OCCD alone appears incapable of building a civilian cemetery in that area.

For brief history of this controversial plan, please click here to visit page Deception.

IMPOSITION WITHOUT CONSULTATION

The elected officials who are pushing for the Gypsum Canyon location of the Veterans' Cemetery don't even seem interested in knowing how the residents in the adjacent communities feel about it. As of October 25, 2021, no survey of the inhabitants of the affected areas has been conducted. To make things worse, those residents were not even notified about the plan to build the cemetery at Gypsum Canyon, despite the fact that the Board of Supervisors of Orange County and virtually all cities in proximity of the planned cemetery (in particular, the City of Anaheim and the City of Yorba Linda) have officially approved that plan.
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Apparently, a group of influential local politicians, activists, and Orange County Cemeteries District (a for-profit company) are trying to turn the Gypsum Canyon area onto the future Cemetery Center of Orange County, with tens of thousands of graves and handsome profits reaching or exceeding billion dollars, without even asking the residents in adjacent to it communities how do they feel about this major transformation that will - if implemented as planned - forever change this beautiful landscape onto a sad reminder of death and dying.

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

The cemeteries will be seen in plain view from homes and streets in the adjacent areas of Easternmost parts of Yorba Linda (in particular, Bryant Ranch) and Anaheim Hills.



On the above picture (please, click on it to see a larger image) from the OC Register (July 1, 2021), activists and supporters of the Veterans' Cemetery - gathered at its proposed Gypsum Canyon site - watch the future captive audience of funerals and graves - the residents of hundreds nearby homes in Bryant Ranch, Yorba Linda, some of which can bee seen in the background, above. anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery anaheim cemetery
Here are some quotes from the ABC Eyewitness News, Wednesday, July 7, 2021 (highlighting and emphasis added):
"I want you to go into your mind's eye, and think what this is going to be like up, on that upper hilltop," said Bill Cook with the Orange County Veterans Memorial Park Foundation.
"With rows of white veteran headstones, shining in the setting sun, for all the people commuting back to Riverside County to ponder on for 45 minutes every night. It's going to be spectacular."

[Quotes from https://abc7.com/orange-county-veterans-cemetery-anaheim-hills/10869096/ ]


See also: https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2021-07-22/veterans-cemetery

for more information.



THE FICTION OF "OVERWHELMING SUPPORT" FOR THE GYPSUM CANYON PROPOSED SITE OF THE CEMETERY


The advocates of Veterans' Cemetery at Gypsum Canyon will have to secure CA Legislature's the approval of Anaheim/Gypasum Canyon as the new site for the Cemetry. They don't have such approval, yet, and will take them many months to secure it, if they manage to accompish that.

At this moment they are lobbying hard for such an approval and it is not clear if they will ever get it.

One of the main argument that they are using in their lobbying is a claim that the affected residents who live nearby the proposed new site (Gypsum Canyon) for the Cemetery welcome and support that proposal.

Well, based on random samples (not a scientific poll) of residents of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda who live in proximity of the proposed site, vast majority of those residents oppose having a cemetery built at Gypsum Canyon, and for several reasons.

According to well-informed sources, whether the CA Legislature approves or rejects Gypsum Canyon as the new site of the Veterans' Cemetery depends on whether the fiction of "overwhelming support" of it among the local residents can be maintained despite the fact that the opposite is true: the local residents overwhelmingly object that plan.

The advovates of the Gypsum Canyon site launched an impressive campaign the pupose of which is to deceive the legislators and their constituencies into believing in that fiction. We know from the news that all 33 cities of Orange County passed resolutions of support of designation of Gypsum Canyon as the new site of the Veterans' Cemetery. What is missing in this campaign, though, is any form of consultation with or polling of the local residents about whether they want to have a cemetery built at Gypsum Canyon or not.

Unlike Gypsum Canyon site, the ARDA site on the grounds of the former Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro, Irvine, has been voted for by the majority of Irvine's residents and approved by the California Legislature. The reason why the construction of the Cemetery has not begun there was an opposition of three (3) members of Irvine's City Council. Now, the very same group that, ostensibly, was unable to convince those three council members to drop their opposition against the ADRA site have convinced well over hundred council members of cities across the Orange County to support the Gypsum Canyon location that in about every aspect is worse than the ADRA site. This fact alone strongly suggests that the actual main objective of the said group was to block the on-going, well-conceived plan for the Veterans' Cemetery at the ARDA site in Irvine rather than to build such Cemetery in the Orange County.


RESIDENTS PROTEST ON DECEMBER 8, 2021

As the information about that plans spreads among the mostly unsuspecting residents, the fiction of "overwhelming support" is beginning to crack. For instance, on December 8, 2021, a group of local residtents launched a protest at the proposed site during the ceremony of "groundbreaking" for the still unapproved Cemetery.

Here is a picture that appeared in printed edition of Orange County Register on December 8, 2021.

OC Register pic protest Dec 8

Here is a picture that was posted in Orange Juice Blog that with a snapshot of the protest.

Orange Juice Blog

As a ressult of press coverage of the protest, the truth about local residents' objections to cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon leaked to the public, and - reportedly - even some staffers in CA Legislature in Sacramento have noticed it.

Here is the bottom line.

The success of local residents' efforts to stop the plan of building cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon depends of public visibility and volume of their objections. It is not enough to disapprove, however strongly, that controversial plan. An incontrovertible evidence that local residents oppose the cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon must become widely known.

Some civic-minded local residents took the initiative, produced signs against cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon, and posted them at various locations in Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda.

If there were hunders of similar signs posted on the front lawns and other places visible to local traffic then the fiction of "overwhelming support" for the cemeteries would have been debunked once and for all. In case you decide on you own to follow the example of those civic-minded local residents, please, make sure to not post anything where it is prohibited by the law or may obstruct traffic or create any kind of hazard.

You may wish to contact webmaster@gypsum91.com with any questions or comments. Also, you are welcome to send him pictures of your signs if you decided on you own to post them.



THE PLANS FOR CEMETERIES AT GYPSUM CANYON HAVE NO FINAL APPROVAL, YET, AND CAN STILL BE CONTESTED.



The California State Legislature had previously approved (Assembly Bill No. 368, "An act to amend Section 1410 of the Military and Veterans Code, relating to veterans cemeteries") an appropriate location of the Veterans' Cemetery in Irvine. This Assembly Bill No. 368 is still the law in California. In order to switch that location to Gypsum Canyon, the State Legislature will have to approve the new location of the Veterans' Cemetery (contact the legislators to oppose the location at Gypsum Canyon) by an amendment of the Assembly Bill No. 368, and the Governor (contact him to veto it) will have to sign it before the state funds can be allocated and the construction can begin.

As of last week (of Feb. 7, 2022), CA Senators and Assemblymembers have been discussing two competing bill proposals AB-1595 and SB-43. Any of those two bills  - if passed - would allow for designation of Gypsum Canyon, Anaheim, as a possible site for the Veterans' Cemetery. Click here for more information.

Sen. Tom Umberg had a bill that would have required the Veterans' Cemetery to be located in Irvine, but he pulled it, recently. Please, urge him to reintroduce that bill.

Assemblyman Steven S. Choi is pushing hard to amend Assembly Bill No. 368 and to designate the Anaheim location at Gypsum Canyon as the site for the Veterans' Cemetery. Please, urge him to stop. See more info here: (click).
You or anyone in California can contact your/his/her elected representatives (via contacts listed here) and express your/his/her position and feelings regarding this issue.

See page WHAT TO DO? for suggestions, mailing lists, and letters templates.
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Possible points to consider:


  • The fallen soldiers and the veterans who passed away deserve a place for their final destination that is respectful and pays tribute to their service and sacrifice for our country. Such a place has been approved by the State Legislature in Irvine (click here to see a rendering of the Irvine site), but city and county officials decided to move it elsewhere. The currently planned location at Gypsum Canyon has been hastily and poorly chosen, and will have many detrimental effects on life and environment in the areas adjacent to this location.

  • According to Realtor.com ("The Neighborhood Features That Drag Down Your Home Value = Ranked"), location of your home near cemetery lowers its average value by more than 12 percent. QUOTE: "we used a list of federal and state cemeteries operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and found that the median price of ZIP codes with a cemetery is about 12% lower than neighboring areas". Here is a picture and a snapshot from that source with red contour and underlying added (click on it to view the original picture from that source):



    The planned cemeteries at Gypsum Canyon will be situated in plain view and will dominate adjacent residential areas, therefore they are likely to drag down the values of homes in those areas much more than the average 12 %. Because the proposed location of the cemetery falls into the boundary of ZIP 92808 (click here for a map of boundaries of ZIP codes), the entire ZIP 92808 may likely see prices of homes there dropping about 12 % after the cemetery is populated. Because there are about 7,600 homes and condos in ZIP 92808, each worth at least (est.) $500,000, the total drop in values of homes just in Anaheim Hills is likely to be more than $ 456 million. It is likely that the total drop in values of million-dollar homes in affected areas of Yorba Linda will be of similar magnitude, thus likely totaling almost $ 1 billion in drop of home prices caused by the location of the cemetery at Gypsum Canyon.

  • Location of the cemetery on the prominent hill dominating some well-populated residential areas of Easternmost parts of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda will likely have a seriously negative impact on the perceived quality and enjoyment of life of residents in these areas. That impact will be much more severe at Gypsum Canyon location than at the original flat location of this cemetery in Irvine that has been approved by the State Legislature.
  • The currently planned location will turn the cemetery and the graves in it into an exhibition, visible in the plain view from the West, North, and East. It will expose its captive spectators, that is, the nearby residents, passers-by, and those driving on 91 Freeway and 241 Toll Road on that view, whether they like it or not. It would be much better for everyone to construct the cemetery in a more discrete location, for instance in the location in Irvine that has been approved by the State Legislature.
  • The currently planned location will offer very little, if any, privacy and discretion for those willing to visit the graves of their deceased relatives or friends who will be buried there. The original location in Irvine that has been approved by the State Legislature is flat, 100 % discrete (the cemetery in Irvine location will be fenced by a tall hedge and surrounded by planned Orange County Great Park, thus making the cemetery practically invisible from the outside), and offers all the privacy for the visitors they may desire.
  • The 91 Freeway and 241 Toll Road exchange is notorious for gigantic traffic jams that during rush hours spill over to and paralyze traffic on nearby streets (Santa Ana Cyn. Rd., La Palma Ave., and Gypsum Cyn. Rd.). Adding to that congestion funeral cavalcades - an unavoidable consequence of having large cemetery at the intersection of Gypsum Cyn. Rd., Santa Ana Cyn. Rd., and two ramps of 91 Fwy - will significantly worsen the already unmanageable situation. As a result of that extra congestion, the main East-West artery between Orange and Riverside Counties will be blocked for additional hours, which will have a serious negative impact on est. 250,000 commuters, daily.

  • All the arguments that have been brought up against the currently approved (by the State Legislature) location of the cemetery in Irvine (the so-called ARDA site) apply even more strongly to the proposed location at Gypsum Canyon. Therefore, the push for switching the location of the cemetery from Irvine to Gypsum Canyon is an attempt to worsen the human and environmental impact of it. Certainly, such a move will benefit some individuals and for-profit companies, but it will have a serious net negative impact on the people of Orange County as a whole. For a side-by-side comparison of impact of Gypsum Canyon site and ARDA site, click here.

  • Mixing civilian cemetery with veterans' cemetery appears to contradict the purpose of the Veterans' Cemetery, that is, to honor the deceased veterans by burying them in a special location as opposed to a general cemetery. One may speculate that the purpose of such an arrangement could be to benefit for-profit company, Orange County Cemetery District, by saving it tens of millions of dollars that it would need to spend on construction of a separate civilian cemetery. If the currently planned arrangement is implemented then state and federal funds (that, according to some observers, may add up to a 100 million dollars or more) would cover most of the costs of preparation of this hilly, uneven, and muddy site with no paved roads, water supply, and drainage, for construction of a cemetery.
  • Once the cemetery is populated there, it will stay there forever indefinitely, for many generations to come. Therefore the decision to construct it must not be taken lightly or hastily and must consider all possible effects of it on the lives of current, future, and prospective residents in that area.
  • Click here to read a rebuttal of objections of new home builders in Irvine against the location of the Veterans' Cemetery in Irvine.
  • Click here to read a rebuttal of an argument that future tall trees are going to hide the cemetery from public view.

 Local officials to contact:

While contacting elected officials, please, be very polite and concise; sending any of them excessive amount of information and objections, or being disrespectful or insistent, will likely make them unwilling to consider your points.

However, please remember that you have the Constitutional right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances", as acknowledged by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the US.

Yorba Linda Mayor Tara Campbell, tel. 714-961-7110, e-mail (with cc to City Council): tcampbell@yorbalindaca.gov

Updated: Email her and the Council with one-click here.


Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, tel. (714) 765-5247, e-mail: aaitken@anaheim.net

Updated: Email the Council with one-click here.


Orange County Chairman of Board of Supervisors Donald P. Wagner, tel. 714-834-3330, e-mail (with cc to Board of Supervisors): Donald.Wagner@ocgov.com

Email him and the Board with one-click here.


Orange County Third District Supervisor Donald P. Wagner, tel. 714-834-3330, e-mail (with cc to Board of Supervisors): Donald.Wagner@ocgov.com

Email him and the Board with one-click here.


Assemblyman Steven S. Choi, Ph.D., California Legislature, 68th District, tel. 714-665-6868, contact form: https://ad68.asmrc.org/


Email him and Orange County Representation in CA Assembly with one-click here.


Assemblyman Phillip Chen, California Legislature, 55th District, tel. 714-529-5502, contact form: https://ad55.asmrc.org/


Email him and Orange County Representation in CA Assembly with one-click here.


California Governor Gavin Newsom, tel. 916-445-2841, contact form: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/




For the list of names, phone numbers, email addresses, and contact pages of state and federal elected officials click here.

Please, take a quick 3 min. survey, now.


  >>>  Please, click here to join MAIL CAMPAIGN #11 (July 22 and 23, 2024).



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