TASSAJARA VALLEY — The death of a key supporter for a big cemetery project that was first floated more than a decade ago has effectively stalled the proposal from moving forward.
Sid Corrie, legal owner of site, and whose company, Corrie Development Corp. of Dublin, is the applicant and developer of the proposed cemetery, died April 26.
Since then, both county planners Telma Moreira and Stanley Muraoka, said in emails that Contra Costa County has no new information on the project, known as Creekside Memorial Park. The proposal calls for a 59-acre, 100,000-plot cemetery along Camino Tassajara and involves several structures, including a chapel and mausoleum.
“I have not been contacted by the applicant, Corrie Development, and have not received any correspondence,” Muraoka said in a July 23 email. “We do not have information on the impact of Mr. Corrie’s death, as the applicant has not provided us with any details.”
Peter Klein, CEO of Corrie Development, could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.
Bill Newman, a volunteer with Friends of Tassajara Valley, which along with other groups has been waging a campaign against the cemetery project, said he doesn’t know yet how Corrie’s death affects the status of the proposal. Newman and his wife Holly Newman contact the county Planning Department each week for updates and said the county has reported no new information.
“So far, there’s been little to report,” Bill Newman said.
Plans for the new cemetery have proceeded slowly since the initial version of the Creekside Memorial Park in 2005. Since that time, thousands of new homes have been built in the Dougherty Valley and Tassajara Valley, some within two to three miles of the cemetery project site along Tassajara Road south of Highland Road.
According to county records, the cemetery project site is zoned for agriculture, not for development, so homes cannot be built on the property.
A major issue of contention between Corrie and the opponents has been the water needed for the cemetery. Opponents say the cemetery would cause water shortages in the area. Newman said his home, like the few residences in the area, relies on water wells.
“It’s a poorly conceived development project that puts unnecessary strain on our dwindling water supplies,” said Matt Vander Sluis of the Greenbelt Alliance in an April 2017 article in the East Bay Times. He also said at the time that the cemetery’s approval could set a precedent for development to expand beyond urban limit lines established by the county.
In the same article, Corrie described the argument of water shortages as “baloney” and said, “If we didn’t have the water, we wouldn’t be able to do it.”
According to county planner Moreira, there was a Feb. 21 meeting this year between the Planning Department and Corrie and his engineer.
“There was nothing submitted or received at the meeting,” Moreira said in an email. “We did discuss that any hearing is pretty much several months away and not before the end of the year.”