Irvine will not be moving forward with a veterans cemetery at the Great Park after city council members again voted against the idea, with a slim majority saying it was a project better left in the past.

It’s a proposal that’s resurfaced in Irvine repeatedly – even after Orange County veterans have kicked off efforts to build a state veterans cemetery elsewhere.

During Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Bobby McDonald, one of the leaders of the Veterans Alliance of Orange County, called on Agran to not “reopen old wounds” on the cemetery fight.

“Please approach this issue with care and thoughtfulness,” McDonald said during public comment. “The decisions made here matter, not just to us, but to generations of veterans and their families.”

While Irvine was set to be the home of Orange County’s first veterans cemetery for over a decade, every city in the county – including Irvine – supported turning a piece of county owned land in Gypsum Canyon after a coalition of veterans called out the city for turning the project into a political quagmire.