SAN DIEGO — Plans for a long-awaited Catholic cemetery for North County have just cleared a major hurdle.
The San Diego County Planning Commission voted unanimously Aug. 22 to grant a major-use permit for the project.
Good Shepherd Catholic Cemetery will be built on an approximately 14.5-acre property in Vista. It will be the second diocesan Catholic cemetery in San Diego County, after Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum, which is nearing capacity for ground burials.
On Nov. 24 of this year, Bishop Michael Pham is scheduled to consecrate the cemetery, which is expected to have space for about 13,000 graves. An opening date will be set after the property is developed for that use.
The property, which has been owned for 10 years by the Diocese of San Diego, is located directly northeast of St. Thomas More Parish in Oceanside.
A group of about 25 supporters attended the public hearing at which the planning commission decided the project’s fate. Among them were parishioners from four parishes – San Rafael in Rancho Bernardo, St. Mary in Escondido, St. Mark in San Marcos, and St. Thomas More. The latter chartered a bus for parishioners to attend the hearing.
Supporters had been prepared to speak on behalf of the proposal, but that proved unnecessary when the commissioners placed the item on the consent agenda and approved it.
The item passed with five commissioners – Chair Ronald Ashman, Vice Chair Michael Edwards and Commissioners Yolanda Calvo, David Pallinger and Colton Sudberry – voting in favor, none against, and one absent (Molly Weber).
“I think that today’s proceeding was incredibly helpful. It was kind of uneventful and anticlimactic after such a hard, 10-year effort to get here, but we’re happy with it,” Rod Valdivia told The Southern Cross after the vote.
Valdivia, the former vice moderator of the diocesan curia, retired in late 2024 after almost 34 years of service to the diocese. Though retired, he has continued to be actively involved with the cemetery project.
Father Efraín Bautista, diocesan director of cemeteries, hailed the approval to proceed with construction.
“A lot of people, especially in North County, have been waiting for this for a very long time,” Father Bautista said.
He added that it fulfills “that desire and that longing … of the entire community up in North County” to have a diocesan Catholic cemetery.
Robert Dorsey, the new director of Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum, also attended the hearing. He explained why the new cemetery is so needed.
Dorsey said that North County is currently home to 24 parishes and more than 300,000 Catholics – a population that continues to grow.
“This cemetery,” he said, “will serve folks from Del Mar up to Oceanside, and from Poway through Escondido, up through Fallbrook on the (Interstate) 15 corridor.”
Dorsey noted that there is “a time-sensitive element” that adds urgency to the construction of a new cemetery: Holy Cross Cemetery, now in operation for over a century, is “getting full.” He estimates that, in terms of ground burials, it will take only about four years for the cemetery to run out of space. (Interments in crypts and niches will still be possible after that time.)
Jerry Sliffe, a member of St. Thomas More Parish, lives “right next-door” to the cemetery site, having about 1,500 feet of shared property line.
Sliffe considers a cemetery to be “the best option for the property.”
“If (the planning commission’s vote) had gone the other direction, it could have either been low-cost housing or it could have been a shopping center,” he said, explaining that the cemetery functions as a green belt and “a place people can walk.”
Reflecting on the results of the hearing, Sliffe said, “I think it went extremely well. I wouldn’t have expected it to have just been put to vote and put to rest.”
With the major-use permit in hand, the two-phase development of the property can begin.
Phase 1 will include landscaping, a temporary parking area, and driveway access improvements.
Phase 2 will cover construction and grading for the majority of the property; remodeling an existing single-family residence into a 2,200-square-foot administrative building; a request for the vacation of Keys Place, a county-maintained road that cuts through the property; and additional parking and landscaping, as well as road improvements on Buena Vista Drive.
A hearing on the vacation of Keys Place is scheduled for Oct. 22. The road must be bequeathed to the cemetery before the perimeter can be secured and gates erected.
In the meantime, Valdivia said, brush can be cleared, the property can be partially fenced, and work can begin to prepare the grounds for burials.
Father Michael Ratajczak, who served as pastor of St. Thomas More Parish from 2003 until his death in July of 2021, will be among the first to be buried in the new cemetery.
The site of the new cemetery, beginning in the mid-2000s, had housed a plant nursery and storage for landscaping materials.
Though initial plans for the cemetery included a chapel and mausoleum, those were abandoned in response to community feedback. Funerals and most other events will be held off-site at Catholic churches in the area, including nearby St. Thomas More Parish.
John Murphy, another member of St. Thomas More Parish, shared his thoughts about the hearing, before boarding the bus back to the parish.
“It’s a human need to bury the dead, right?” Murphy asked rhetorically. “And we want to be buried in an area that’s known to us, that’s close to us.
“This is an answer to our prayers.”
For more information about Good Shepherd Catholic Cemetery, visit holycrosssd.com and email robert@holycrosssd.com.
