A plan to turn 109 wooded acres above Angwin into Napa County’s first green cemetery — a place where the dead go into the ground with no embalming, no concrete vault and no granite headstone — has run headlong into the people who live downhill from it.
More than three dozen Howell Mountain residents wrote the county to oppose the Howell Mountain Eternal Preserve, and a string of them showed up at the June 17 Planning Commission hearing to say the same thing in person: a burial ground for thousands sitting on top of the ridge is the wrong thing in the wrong place. They worry about their water, their narrow road and the animals that share the hill. Commissioners didn’t decide. They sent county staff away with a list of questions and continued the hearing to a date nobody has set yet.
Key takeaways
- Eternal Preserves Holdings LLC wants to build Napa County’s first green burial cemetery on 109 acres at 1225 Howell Mountain Road, near Angwin.
- The plan sets aside about 16 acres in eight interment areas with room for up to 17,340 full-body burials and 35,530 plots for cremated remains, plus public trails, a new well and a welcome center.
- More than 36 residents wrote the county in opposition, citing groundwater, traffic on Howell Mountain Road, wildlife digging up graves and the demolition of two old cabins.
- The Napa County Planning Commission continued the item June 17 so staff could answer questions about the site’s hydrology and geology.
What’s on the table
The applicant, Eternal Preserves Holdings LLC, is pitching a conservation cemetery: bury bodies wrapped in shrouds or simple biodegradable caskets, skip the embalming chemicals and the vaults, and let the land stay forest. Of the 109 acres at 1225 Howell Mountain Road, only about 16 would hold graves, spread across eight interment areas. The rest would be left wooded and laced with trails the public could walk. The project also calls for a new well, a welcome center with outdoor restrooms and parking.
The numbers are what stick with people. County documents put the capacity at up to 17,340 full-body burials and another 35,530 plots for cremated remains. That is a lot of remains on one Howell Mountain ridge, and opponents keep coming back to where the ridge drains.
Why the neighbors are fighting it
Water tops the list. Angwin resident Bucky Swisher told the county that “putting thousands of bodies directly in the upper Burton Creek watershed canyon is a terrifying prospect.” Down in Pope Valley, resident Jeff Parady said the area has little groundwater of its own and leans on runoff from higher up — including into his pond — and he doesn’t want a cemetery sitting in that path. Attorney Thomas Carey, speaking for a group of neighbors, told commissioners the project hadn’t been backed by the geological work needed to know what decomposition would do to the groundwater.
Then there is the road. Howell Mountain Road is steep and narrow, and the applicant asked the county to skip building a left-turn lane into the site. Neighbors weren’t having it. “The turn-lane thing is a no-brainer,” said Angwin resident Mike Hackett, who warned of deaths on the grade without one.
Residents also raised wildlife — bears and feral pigs that could dig at shallow graves — and history. Kellie Anderson of Angwin called the project’s historical study “undeniably biased in its diminution of the historic significance” of two cabins on the parcel that would be torn down.
The conservation pitch
Green, or natural, burial is the whole point of the model. No embalming fluid in the soil, no steel and concrete in the ground, and the land protected as open space instead of paved or planted to vines. The applicant runs a sister site, Morgan Oaks Eternal Preserve in Placer County near Lincoln, which bills itself as California’s first licensed all-green cemetery and records on the order of 41 burials a year — a pace supporters point to when they argue the Howell Mountain site would fill slowly, not overnight.
What happens next
Nothing is approved. Commissioners continued the hearing rather than vote it up or down, asking staff to come back with answers on the specific hydrology and geology of the site — the same ground the neighbors have been standing on. No new hearing date has been set. Until one is, the question the neighbors keep asking — what thousands of bodies would do to the water coming off this ridge — is the one the county still hasn’t answered.
Frequently asked questions
What is a green or natural burial?
A burial without embalming chemicals, metal caskets or concrete vaults. The body is placed in a shroud or biodegradable casket so it returns to the soil, and the land is typically kept as protected open space.
Where would the Howell Mountain cemetery go?
On 109 acres at 1225 Howell Mountain Road, near Angwin in Napa County, northeast of St. Helena. About 16 acres would be used for graves; the rest would stay forested with public trails.
Has the project been approved?
No. The Napa County Planning Commission continued the item at its June 17 hearing and asked staff for more study of the site’s water and geology. No new hearing date has been set.