An example of a columbarium structure suitable for the Veterans Memorial Park
On December 9th, four members of the Irvine City Council — William Go, James Mai, Melinda Liu, and Kathleen Treseder — voted against building a Veterans Wall of Honor & Columbarium within the grounds of the now-under-construction Veterans Memorial Park & Gardens on the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station at the Great Park. A columbarium is a structure, often a wall, with small compartments designed to hold urns containing the cremated remains (ashes) of the deceased.
At the December 9th meeting, the four Councilmembers said that it would be “culturally insensitive” for community members and “traumatic” for Irvine children to see a columbarium. In fact, the proposed columbarium would be secluded within a very small portion of the Veterans Memorial Park & Gardens, surrounded by trees and not visible to the general public.
During the January 13th City Council meeting, Councilmember Mai — supported by Councilmember Treseder — introduced a motion that would direct City staff to study alternative locations for a public columbarium that would be open to anyone with ties to Irvine, not just veterans and their families. Mai and Treseder suggested the Cultural Terrace in the Great Park as one of the sites to study.
Mayor Larry Agran was quick to remind Councilmembers Mai and Treseder of their December statements in which they claimed that construction of a columbarium would be culturally insensitive and traumatic for children. The Mayor questioned their desire to now study the Cultural Terrace as a potential site for a columbarium in light of the fact that millions of community members, including children, are expected to visit the Cultural Terrace every year. (The Cultural Terrace will soon become home to Pretend City Children’s Museum, the Asian-American History Museum, and OC Music & Dance.)
The Mayor also suggested that Mai and Tresder spend their own Council budgets if they wanted to conduct a new study since the City had already invested many hundreds of thousands of dollars on legally designating the 125-acre Veterans Memorial Park & Gardens site (often referred to as the “ARDA” site).
Councilmember Melinda Liu expressed her own concerns, questioning the lack of timely preparation before the Mai-Treseder item was placed on the Council agenda. Liu said there was a “lack of information” and that she didn’t believe the Council should allocate money for the City’s professional staff members to go on “a wild goose chase.” Councilmember Liu concluded her expressed concerns with a motion to table the item, which means postponing consideration of the Mai-Treseder motion indefinitely. Councilmember Mike Carroll seconded Liu’s motion, which passed on a 4-3 vote, with Councilmembers Mai, Treseder, and Go voting NO.
It’s now unclear if or when the columbarium matter will reappear on a future City Council agenda.
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