Santa Fe National Cemetery would grow by about 5 acres if the federal government accepts a city of Santa Fe land donation that is finally moving toward completion.

The added space will help extend the life of the historic cemetery, where each year about 1,600 military veterans and immediate family members are laid to rest.

Without the land donation, director Cliff Shields estimates, the cemetery has only enough space to last until 2018. The donation could stretch the site's life for another 10 to 12 years beyond that, depending on how the new land is used, he said.

A plat map and quit-claim deed for the area that the City Council wants to give the cemetery was filed last week with the Santa Fe County clerk and is on its way to Washington, D.C., where the National Cemetery Administration will begin its "due diligence" on the transaction.

It could be months, however, before a ceremony marking the new graveyard boundaries takes place, said James Rich, the administration's public affairs specialist. As of Tuesday, the cemetery administration still did not have what it considers a "formal proposal" from the city.

"At this point in time, there are a lot of steps to be taken," said Rich. "They have done lot of things within the city government of Santa Fe, but none of that has been communicated to (the National Cemetery Administration) yet. On an official level, we are dealing with a hypothetical here."

Once cemetery officials have a written proposal from city staff, the federal process will take over. Before the title for the land can be transferred, officials will perform a title search, create an official document called an offer to donate, then run the whole thing up the bureaucratic flagpole to the Department of Justice Land Acquisition Section.

The donation has had a long history. In 2005, the City Council authorized donation of a vacant 5.7-acre parcel to the cemetery. But that plan was never executed. Then earlier this year, councilors revived the effort with a caveat.

Residents of the neighborhood behind the cemetery raised concerns that if the city donated the entire parcel, cemetery managers would then lower a ridgeline that provides a sight and sound barrier between houses and traffic on U.S. 84/285. So in February, councilors voted to carve seven-tenths of an acre out of the original proposed donation so the ridge would remain intact.

Another issue raised by councilors and area veterans during the recent debate concerned whether the new section of the cemetery would contain the iconic upright white marble headstones or flat granite markers.

Councilor Ron Trujillo earlier this year promised to advocate for upright headstones on the new section. Trujillo, whose father is buried in the cemetery, even sponsored another council resolution to formally ask the Department of Veterans Affairs to replace all the flat markers at the cemetery with upright versions.

In a March letter from Acting Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Steve Muro, the VA declined to replace the tombstones. Flat grave markers are the only ones offered for interments along the newer back side of the cemetery that faces the St. Catherine neighborhood. Muro's letter says that's because in 1999 cemetery officials promised those residents that all new graves facing their homes would not have upright headstones.

"NCA will consider the use of upright headstones in any new land that we acquire," he wrote. "However, it is NCA's policy that once a burial section is designated as a flat marker section, it remains that way."

Shields, the cemetery director, is anxious for the land donation to be completed.

Although the first burial occurred in 1868, the national cemetery was officially established in 1875. Now, about 46,000 graves are on the 78-acre property.

Shields said he's not likely to get involved in the decision about flat or upright headstones if the new section of cemetery is acquired.

"It really has everything to do with Congress," he said. "In each cemetery, we don't control any of that its all. It's all done by whoever the administration is that is in office."

Some national cemeteries don't have any upright gravestones, however, most of the 128 national cemeteries have a combination of the two.

Although the vast majority of Santa Fe's gravesites in upright areas are occupied, about a half dozen are available. Sometimes remains are relocated to other cemeteries at the request of families and those circumstances create additional vacant graves that can have upright headstones.

Shields considers each burial request on a case-by-case basis and some factors he considers in deciding how to use the remaining sites in the upright-headstone area are whether the deceased has immediate family buried nearby and whether he or she was on active military duty or was killed in action.

For example, Lance Cpl. Jonathan Grant of Pojoaque, who earned a Purple Heart and died in Afghanistan, was interred in a section with upright stones.

Trujillo said he's not giving up on the idea that all veterans buried here should have upright stones and said he hopes to convince Washington to see it his way.

"That adds to the beauty of that cemetery," he said. "I have spoken with Rep. (Ben Ray) Luján on it and I do know that he is inquiring on this issues. It's something that our veterans want. They made the open sacrifice for our country and our state and this is their wish."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.