A: Palmyra Cemetery is a proposed 3,339-gravesite, green burial cemetery planned to be developed at 290 E. Yorba Street, on a site that was formerly home to the now-defunct YMCA of Orange. The property owner and developer is Dr. Sana Khan, an Orange resident and businessman.
While the site is technically 5.99- acres, 1.71 of those acres consist of portions of Santiago Creek and the Santiago Creek Trail. In reality, only 4.28 acres are available for development.
The site is located off E. Palmyra Avenue and S. Tracy Lane, between the OUSD site to the east, the Santa Ana River Trail to the west, and Yorba Park to the north.
Although it will primarily serve the Muslim faith community, it will be open to all faiths, provided interment is a green burial, i.e. no embalming and no casket.
On site will be:
The project site will be landscaped along all street frontages.
A: The cemetery will be open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with limited operations from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. It’s anticipated there will be an average of 20-25 burials per month
Funeral services and post-burial memorial services would only be permitted between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Islamic funerals typically take place around 1:00 p.m., during afternoon prayer.
The cemetery business office will be off-site.
Daily activities will vary, but during normal hours of operation could include:
Certain activities, arranged only by appointment, may occur between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., such as preparation of the body for burial and pre-burial family visitations.
Funeral services and post-burial memorial services would only occur during normal hours of operation.
In some instances, the remains of the deceased may be delivered after normal hours of operation, to be placed in refrigerated storage in the cemetery building.
All site and landscape maintenance will occur during normal business hours.
A: Compared to burial services to which most of us are accustomed, Islamic funeral services are brief and low-key.
Most of us are accustomed to funerals that are fairly long and involved, beginning with a religious or memorial service at a church, chapel or mortuary, followed by a motorcade to the cemetery for a graveside service where the deceased is interred. This often involves singing, group prayer and/or musical accompaniment at the graveside.
Often, several days, or even weeks, elapse between a loved one’s passing and the actual funeral – allowing time for larger numbers of family and friends to attend.
The Islamic tradition is much quicker and simpler. The Muslim faith requires the deceased to be buried as soon as possible – within 24-48 hours after death – which allows far less time for large gatherings of family and friends for the funeral.
Embalming, cremation and casket burials are prohibited.
The deceased will be brought to Palmyra Cemetery on-site mortuary within 24 to 48 hours of death. There, it will be prepared for burial according to the green burial practices that form the Muslim burial tradition: the body is washed by a small number of close relatives and friends, and then wrapped in a simple cotton shroud.
The deceased is then moved on a burial tray into the viewing room, where family members gather briefly. After the viewing, the body is moved to the Prayer Hall where mourners briefly say prayers for the dead.
The body is then brought to the gravesite and placed in the grave, followed by another brief (perhaps 3 minutes) of prayer; no music is played. Then the burial service is concluded.
Islamic burials typically take place during afternoon prayer, around 1:00 p.m.
A: Yes. The property’s current designation in the city’s General Plan is Open Space-Park (OS-P), Open Space (OS), Low Density Residential (LDR), and Yorba South Commercial Overlay (YSCO). It is zoned as Recreational Open Space (RO).
A cemetery is an allowed use of the property under both the General Plan land use designation and the zoning.
A very small portion of the property is next to the adjacent neighborhood and carries a Low Density Residential designation. We will be asking the city to change that designation and subject zoning to be consistent with that of the rest of the property.
A: There are no Islamic cemeteries in Orange County, although several non-sectarian Orange County cemeteries reserve sections for specific faith traditions, and some have sections set aside for members of the Muslim faith. However, those have filled up and Orange County Muslims desiring to inter their loved ones according to their faith traditions must travel outside of Orange County to locations such as Lancaster.
A: Our original plan had been to renovate and re-purpose the YMCA building as a burial preparation center, prayer hall and office. Unfortunately, a series of fires in September, October and November of 2021 destroyed the YMCA building. The debris has been removed from the site.
Our plan is to reconstruct the YMCA building according to the architectural plans we submitted to the city prior to those fires. After minor remodeling and modifications, the building would be 5,138 square feet – slightly smaller than the previous YMCA building.
The first floor will consist of a Prayer Hall and a Women’s Prayer Room (according to Muslim burial tradition, mourners generally segregate by sex); a Bathing Room (for preparation of the deceased); a Viewing Room and support spaces. The second floor will be for business offices.
A: The gravesites themselves will be constructed on a section-by-section basis, in batches of 100-120 graves at a time. With an anticipated burial rate of 20-25 burials per month, a new batch of 100- 120 graves would be built every four to five months.
A minimum seven-foot landfill cover (five (5) feet for graves, and a two-foot buffer above the landfill) would be constructed in the areas of the proposed gravesites for drainage improvements. To achieve the seven-foot landfill cover thickness, clean soil would be imported in areas where the landfill cover is less than seven (7) feet. Little to none of the existing landfill cover would be altered to reach the final design grades. The existing LFG monitoring probes and groundwater monitoring well would be protected during site grading activities to prevent damage.
We estimate this will take place over a maximum of 20 years, and perhaps less.
A: Given the cemetery’s relatively small size and severe shortage of Muslim burial plots in Orange County, it is currently anticipated that all the grave sites will sell quickly and the cemetery could well be filled in less than 10 years.
A: When a grave site is sold, state law requires cemeteries to deposit a portion of the payment into an endowment fund created for the purpose of providing for the maintenance of the cemetery in perpetuity. The endowment is legally separate from the operator of the cemetery, and is governed by an independent board of directors.
A: With 3,339 graves on 3.5 acres, Palmyra Cemetery will be quite small by the standards of other Orange County cemeteries.
To provide perspective, consider that Holy Sepulcher in east Orange is 38 acres, Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana is 73-acres, and Westminster Memorial Park is 150 acres.
A: Yes. While there is an urgent need for burial spaces among the Muslim community, Palmyra Cemetery will welcome all faiths, as long as burials are conducted according to green burial requirements, i.e. the deceased is washed, wrapped in a linen shroud and buried without a casket.
When it comes to burials, most people are accustomed to Christian/Western funeral practices. A funeral service at a church or funeral home (several days and often weeks after the passing of the deceased), followed by a motorcade procession to the burial site for an often lengthy graveside service.
Muslim burial practice, on the other hand, it very simple – taking place within 24 to 48 hours of death. That limited time frame tends to work against large gatherings at the burial.
A: We anticipate a maximum of three office personnel and three-to-four groundskeeping/maintenance workers on site during typical daily operations.
All site and landscape maintenance would be restricted to normal business hours, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
A: Like any other development project, the Gardens of Peace Cemetery will move through an established approval process with the city.
The approval process formally commences when the project’s Environmental Impact Report is finalized. Residents and businesses within a 300-foot radius of the project site will be notified that the EIR is finalized and available to the public (we will conduct an independent community outreach effort to inform residents who live within a much wider radius).
The first public hearing will be before the Design Review Committee (DRC). DRC members are appointed by the City Council. The DRC is an advisory body whose jurisdiction is limited to a project’s design aesthetics. DRC has no jurisdiction over actual land use matters. DRC decisions are advisory only: development projects move forward regardless of whether or not the DRC recommends approval.
The next stop in the approval process is the Planning Commission, which generally speaking has plenary decision-making power. The Planning Commission is also appointed by the City Council. The Planning Commission has the power to approve or deny land use applications, conditional use permits, etc.
If the Planning Commission approves the Gardens of Peace Cemetery, the project will move to the Orange City Council, since the development will require a General Plan amendment, as well as a zoning change for a small portion of the property.
A: That is not true. Neither the project design team nor the Local Enforcement Agency considers lateral or horizontal movement of the soil to be an issue for the development of a cemetery on the site. The old YMCA site is relatively level, with little topographical relief. When it comes to a development project of any kind, there will be some vertical settlement, particularly in the case of a former landfill.
The cemetery plan submitted to the city for approval provides for grading to ensure proper drainage on the site. Furthermore, those plans also provide for ongoing maintenance that will ensure proper drainage for the life of the project.
