After a lengthy hearing Tuesday evening, Contra Costa County’s Planning Commission approved plans for creation of the area’s first Jewish cemetery.
Observers of the proposal for the Gan Shalom cemetery, planned for 83 acres of grazing land outside of Martinez, predicted that foes would appeal the 5-1 vote to the county’s Board of Supervisors.
“In spite of what the neighbors’ concerns are, we are determined to be good neighbors,” said Frank Winer, president of the nonprofit cemetery group and a congregant at Lafayette’s Temple Isaiah.
“A cemetery is probably the least disturbing thing that could go there, aside from a cow pasture.”
Property owners living near the secluded valley on Bear Creek Road are fighting the cemetery, claiming it would drain wells, create traffic hazards and backups, and spoil an undeveloped piece of rural land.
“The area has been an agricultural area for over 100 years,” said Adam Nathanson, head of the Briones Hills Preserve Alliance, a group opposing the cemetery.
But Winer said that traffic generated by the cemetery would be minimal and that Gan Shalom would stop pumping its wells if they draw down water supplies to local neighbors.
Cemetery backers say they are racing the clock to get approval for Gan Shalom, noting that the last Jewish gravesites reserved at secular Oakmont Memorial Park and Mortuary in Lafayette will be filled within two years.
For Temple Isaiah congregants, “we only have probably 30 spaces left,” said Winer. “Basically, we figure we’ll be totally out of space in Oakmont in two years and it probably takes two years to get a new cemetery up and running.”
Jewish leaders have been trying to build a cemetery of their own for 20 years.
The proposed burial ground is the third site considered by Gan Shalom, whose 16-member board has representatives from synagogues throughout Contra Costa and Alameda counties.
First District Supervisor John Gioia, who represents the area where the cemetery would be built, predicted the issue would come to the board within two months.