Riverside County planning commission continues contested Meadowbrook cemetery item after heated debate over water risks

Riverside County planning commissioners voted April 1 to continue action on Conditional Use Permit 230002—a proposed 85‑acre cemetery near Meadowbrook—after a daylong public hearing that drew about 44 registered speakers and sharply divergent testimony over water quality and community need.

John Hildebrand, Riverside County planning director, opened the hearing with a staff presentation describing the site (about 85 acres, roughly 46 acres to be developed and ~38 acres conserved), a phased 15‑year buildout and planned facilities including a chapel, a 7,000‑square‑foot cleansing facility, a caretaker residence and an equipment shed. Hildebrand said staff had prepared a mitigated negative declaration (MND), received “a number of letters” and that the recommendation for the commission was to continue the item off calendar while technical comments are addressed.

Hamid Haq, representing the applicant MMCC, said the nonprofit has run burial operations for more than 35 years and described the project as an affordable, faith‑based cemetery intended to serve the Inland Empire’s growing Muslim community. Selena Kelleher of EPD Solutions detailed operational elements and said the applicant revised its burial method from an open (gravel bed) approach to fully enclosed six‑sided concrete vaults with an additional plastic…