{"id":384563,"date":"2026-07-03T03:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T03:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384563\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T03:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T03:58:17","slug":"state-greenlights-oc-veterans-cemetery-construction-ahead-of-independence-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384563\/","title":{"rendered":"State Greenlights OC Veterans Cemetery Construction Ahead of Independence Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

A groundbreaking for Orange County\u2019s first veterans cemetery is closer than ever after state legislators and Governor Gavin Newsom signed off on over $19 million worth of construction as part of their new budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first step of construction in the project that now has over $78 million set aside in the bank by federal, state and county leaders after a series of studies and a decade of debate over where the cemetery should go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[Read: How Did Irvine Fail to Build a Veterans Cemetery After Nearly a Decade of Debate?<\/a>]\u00a0<\/p>\n

While veterans groups and OC legislators have worked to gather funds for the project over several state budget battles, construction has yet to begin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Over 100 veterans and their supporters packed into the Anaheim City Council Chambers on Nov. 21 2025, with dozens more turned away at the door. Credit: NORBERTO SANTANA JR., Voice of OC<\/p>\n

After local and state leaders agreed to ditch plans to build the cemetery in Irvine, they agreed to move forward on a chunk of land off of the 91 freeway in Anaheim\u2019s Gypsum Canyon right next to a planned county cemetery so they could share some construction costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State leaders have completed a study of the site, saying it\u2019ll cost about $86 million to build over the next few decades, a much cheaper price tag that they originally anticipated would surpass $120 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read: Santana: State VA Greenlights Orange County Vet Cemetery at Gypsum Canyon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"The future lot for the veterans cemetery in the Gypsum Canyon Wilderness Park on Sunday, May 18, 2025. Credit: MAXIMO SANTANA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Now, state leaders have authorized direct spending of $10 million they set aside in previous budgets to begin construction on the actual cemetery, along with providing another $9 million in new money they greenlit this month to pay for new infrastructure at the site including roads along with power and water hookups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new funding was announced by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, who\u2019s wrapping up her last few months at the statehouse and has been a leader of the project since talks about it began around 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, veterans and military families in our region have fought to see this project move forward,\u201d Quirk-Silva said in a Tuesday statement. \u201cThis budget delivers meaningful progress toward honoring that commitment while continuing to invest in housing, public services, and the supports Californians rely on every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Berardino, president of the Veterans Alliance of Orange County, praised the work of the county, state and federal leaders who helped make the project happen in a Wednesday interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new funding means major construction will start soon, focusing initially on moving utility lines onto the site along with building a main access road, Berardino added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major victory for the veteran community that took twelve years of battle,\u201d Berardino said. \u201cBut we have taken the hill with the help of a bipartisan elected official coalition which stands as a sterling example for our 250th anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A groundbreaking for Orange County\u2019s first veterans cemetery is closer than ever after state legislators and Governor Gavin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,6703,31434,155233,2267],"class_list":["post-384563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-county-government","tag-orange-county-veterans-cemetery","tag-southern-california-veterans-cemetery","tag-voice-of-oc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}