Saratoga’s Madronia Cemetery buys house for $4.5 million for possible expansion

In a pre-emptive move the Saratoga Cemetery District bought a house on Lomita Avenue with an eye toward attainable expansion but neighboring homeowners are concerned about what the purchase may mean for their neighborhood s charm Related Articles Oakland seeks to seize print shop property move oldest fire station there Site of massive tech campus proposed for San Jose goes up for sale New East Bay Courtyard by Marriott expected to boost local business sector San Jose hotel foreclosure hints at worsening woes for Bay Area realm San Jose deal could change fortunes of West St James housing towers The district manages Madronia Cemetery providing just under acres of burial ground for Saratoga and Monte Sereno property owners The house at Lomita Ave which is right next to the cemetery was put up for sale by the Darlington family trust During a special meeting on March the cemetery district made an offer on the house and the purchase was approved in a unanimous vote on April costing the district million The sale closed on April Steve Albright general manager of Madronia Cemetery disclosed the board had been looking to purchase property to expand the cemetery for the last four to five years So when the house on Lomita Avenue went up for sale they craved to make an offer to address the limited available land left in the cemetery an issue that has been plaguing the South Bay Just because we purchased the land we realized it might never be a cemetery but we feel like we wouldn t be doing our jobs if we didn t make an offer on the land Albright mentioned Because once we re out of land we re out of land and we feel like it s our responsibility to keep the cemetery going The cemetery opened on two acres in Since then Madronia has been been deeded several other parcels the last one in for million bringing the total acreage up to Of this land acres has already been used Albright estimated that the remaining two acres could provide enough burial space for the next years so growing the purchased land isn t urgent But if necessary the land the house sits on would add a half-acre which Albright estimated could last another six to seven years However for at least the next decade or so Albright explained there isn t a move by the cemetery district to rezone the parcel to allow for use by the cemetery and the home will likely be rented out for the time being Certain neighbors expressed measured concern over what little they heard about the purchase Srini Ramaswamy a -year-old resident of Lomita Avenue commented he knew their neighbor s house had gone up for sale but only heard through word of mouth that the cemetery had bought it When he and his family moved in just a couple years ago the nearby cemetery wasn t straightaway off-putting Ramaswamy declared he was still attracted to the quiet neighborhood on the cul-de-sac that bordered the cemetery However he noted he would be concerned about the cemetery s acquisition if it alters the character of the place I don t know fully what to make of it yet Ramaswamy commented It would depend on what the plans are This isn t the first time the cemetery district has tried to buy house and was met with public dissent In the cemetery district tried to buy two properties on Oak Street but residents took the dispute to the Santa Clara County board of supervisors and the city of Saratoga Alternatively Albright commented that if Madronia Cemetery runs out of space the district may open a new cemetery somewhere else but it would cost millions of dollars to do so The cemetery is funded through property taxes distributed by the county which is why only residents are eligible to be buried there It allows the cemetery to charge less for their services than elsewhere in the county In the fiscal year Madronia Cemetery received a little under million in revenue which includes million in property taxes and for services They spent about which includes the costs for paying their employees salaries and benefits and for holding funeral services Albright revealed it costs an average of for someone to be buried in Madronia Cemetery which includes the cost of a plot digging the grave and burial as well as fees for perpetual maintenance and recording and the sales tax In contrast it would cost between and to bury someone at Los Gatos Memorial Park declared a representative of the privately owned cemetery Having a cemetery in your town just for the residents of your town is a valuable thing Albright reported Until it s gone people won t understand how nice it was to have that