New Cemetery Sparks Concern in Rural Riverside County

Community Concerns Over Proposed Cemetery Near Rural Neighborhood

A proposed cemetery overlooking Canyon Lake in southwest Riverside County has sparked significant concern among nearby residents. The project, known as Crescent Gardens Cemetery, would cover 85 acres and include a 25-acre gravesite with approximately 20,000 burial plots. Located in the unincorporated Meadowbrook neighborhood near Perris, Canyon Lake, and Lake Elsinore, the site is raising alarm among locals who fear the impact on their rural community.

“We thought it was a joke when we first found out about it,” said Canyon Lake resident Blake Ruff. “But yeah, it’s not a joke.”

Crescent Gardens would be the Muslim Mortuary and Cemetery Committee’s fifth cemetery in the greater Los Angeles area. As a nonprofit organization, the committee provides burial options for the region’s Muslim community in accordance with traditional practices. These practices involve washing and cleaning the bodies of the deceased before wrapping them in a cotton shroud and burying them directly in the ground without embalming or caskets. According to the committee, it has helped more than 2,700 Muslim families in Southern California with burials at sites in Anaheim, La Verne, Montecito, and Westminster.

If approved by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors later this year, Crescent Gardens would mark the committee’s first standalone cemetery. However, the proposal has faced strong opposition from local residents.

Neighbors Express Concerns

Residents along the final block of Garfield Road outside Perris, where the road dead-ends into the property the Muslim Mortuary and Cemetery Committee wants to use, say they were taken aback by the project. They first learned about it earlier this month through a certified letter from Riverside County.

“This is a neighborhood, this is not going to work,” Ruff said. “This is the back of a neighborhood. This is the only way in and out. We have a quiet, dead-end street, and now we’re going to have all this traffic.”

Ruff, who is working to turn his family’s property into a commercial organic farm, worries about the impact on his business.

“Who’s going to want to buy produce and plants from a place next to a cemetery?” he asked.

Alan and Nica Osterhout-McNeil have lived at the end of Garfield Road since 2001. Nica said the opposition arose after she reviewed the information provided in the letter and saw how close the cemetery would be to their home.

“The distance between the caretaker’s residence and the very first burial plot is 575 feet, more or less,” Nica said. “So the caretaker doesn’t have the same proximity that they do at our residence.”

Garfield Road residents said the fact that Crescent Gardens would be a Muslim cemetery isn’t why they are objecting to the project. “No, absolutely not,” Alan said. “It’s just the idea of the graveyard. If it was a Catholic graveyard, I wouldn’t want it here.”

Ruff echoed similar sentiments. “I wouldn’t want a Christian cemetery, public cemetery, private cemetery, pet cemetery. I don’t want a cemetery at all.”

Local Officials and Water Quality Concerns

At its meeting on August 13, the Canyon Lake City Council voted unanimously in favor of a non-binding resolution expressing its opposition to the proposed Crescent Gardens Cemetery. Councilmember Jeremy Smith emphasized the importance of listening to residents, many of whom have voiced strong concerns about the project.

Among those opposing the cemetery is Darcy Burke, who previously served in various roles in regional water agencies. She warned about the potential risks associated with the cemetery’s impact on groundwater.

“One big rain can make that groundwater basin come up and make that decomposing tissue come out,” Burke told the council. “The risk is too great to risk it.”

Water quality is a major concern for Alan Osterhout-McNeil, who relies on well water. “We have well water here, so we’re going to be impacted,” he said.

The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District is preparing a comment on the cemetery’s potential impact on local water quality, according to Burke.

County Claims Water Supply Is Safe

Despite these concerns, Riverside County officials maintain that the proposed cemetery poses no threat to the area’s water supply. Felisa Cardona, spokesperson for the county’s Transportation and Land Management Agency, stated that the natural burial process used by the Muslim Mortuary and Cemetery Committee is routinely practiced at four other cemeteries in the region.

According to Cardona, the process involves washing the deceased with natural soap and water, wrapping them in a cotton shroud, and placing them in a subgrade concrete vault 6 feet below ground. The water used for washing is diverted into a tank and then hauled away by a licensed vendor.

Cardona also noted that the graves would be at least 6 feet away from any groundwater, which is primarily located 147 feet below ground surface. She added that the project would not violate water quality standards or waste discharge requirements.

On July 31, the county Planning Department declared that any negative impacts of the project would be addressed by the Muslim Mortuary and Cemetery Committee.

The next step for the Crescent Gardens Cemetery project will be a public hearing before the Riverside County Planning Commission. As of midday Friday, the public hearing had not been scheduled.