High School Gold Prize winner Andi Mo with community leader Jay Yao for Stopping the Cemetery

A Land For the Dead 

(Vice Title: A Letter to Jerry Brown)

Dear Governor Brown:

My name is Andi Mo, a resident of San Ramon. I would like to bring the proposed Creekside Memorial Park Cemetery at 7000 Camino Tassajara, San Ramon, CA to your attention. Upon first glance, the cemetery appears to be a pleasant addition to the Contra Costa County. It provides a final resting place for Tri-Valley residents and seems to be a better use of land than residential home construction. However, these few beneficiary reasons are undermined by the cemetery's detrimental impacts and inessentiality. Therefore, the cemetery should not be built.

The cemetery should not be approved because it will considerably increase traffic. Located at the borders of San Ramon, Pleasanton, Danville, and Dublin, Camino Tassajara is a heavily used road by commuters since it serves as a bypass to the congested I-580 and I-680. Furthermore, it is a common place for car accidents due to its tortuous and narrow two-car lanes. With the cemetery built there, the existing traffic will worsen into a flash flood of traffic congestion since funeral processions have the right of way by law and as a mark of respect. Not only will this add time to Tri-Valley residents' daily commute, it will also increase the chance of car accidents on a road where several fatal car accidents have already occurred. These negative impacts of blocked traffic can be prevented if the cemetery were not to be built along the inconveniently located Camino Tassajara.

Another consequence of the cemetery is that it is hazardous to San Ramon's environment. This cemetery will leave an enormous urban footprint because of its proposed 60,000 square feet of buildings. It also requires an extensive amount of unsustainable water from bore wells for its lawns and landscaping. Not only will this cemetery deplete the area's limited existing underground water source and contribute to California's drought, the cemetery will additionally endanger the site's many sensitive species of plants and animals. Much of Camino Tassajara's prime wildlife-friendly habitats will be destroyed from the 77 acres of grading the cemetery would require to be built on such a hilly surface. As a zoned site, Camino Tassajara can become the site of the environmentally threatening cemetery or remain as open space. Because of the cemetery's negative environmental effects, the Camino Tassajara site should remain as open space instead.

Most importantly, the cemetery is not even necessary. According to acknowledged cemetery expert and consultant Thomas J. Gratny, there is no need for more cemeteries in the Tri-Valley. Based on Tri-Valley's expected population growth, death rates, and the increasing number of cremation, the numerous existing cemeteries within 10-15 miles of Tri-Valley have more than enough space to cover all needs for at least the next 50 years. For example, three of these cemeteries, the Holy Sepulchre (Hayward), Queen of Heaven (Lafayette), and St. Michael (Livermore) combined have 232 acres of undeveloped land for burials, which is at least seven times the 24-30 acres of gravesites proposed by Creekside. Clearly, the existing cemeteries are not lacking in space for gravesites, and there is no need for a new cemetery.

Creekside Memorial Park needs to be stopped because not only is it unnecessary, it also increases traffic congestion and damages the environment. With all these reasons, it is baffling why such an inappropriate project should be proposed to be constructed at an even more inappropriate location. As governor of California, please discuss this situation with members of the California state legislature to introduce a bill that prohibits the construction of unnecessary projects that harms the environment at traffic-heavy locations in California. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Andi Mo