Didn't get that special gift for Christmas? How about a reclaimed burial plot at Mountain View Cemetery on Fraser Street?
The $22,500 asking price seems a little steep, but there are reasons for the high cost, says cemetery manager Glen Hodges.
"It's likely we'll have less than 1,000 to sell over time," he said. "And there are not a lot of cemeteries in Metro Vancouver."
Mountain View is the only cemetery in Vancouver and until recently had no vacant burial plots available to purchase, but now staff are reclaiming unused graves sold prior to 1940.
Last weekend Mountain View posted a list of names in the Vancouver Sun of the original owners of 200 plots who fit the criteria, beginning with the Abercrombie family and ending with James Young. Included in the list are many family names common to Vancouver, including Fraser, McDonald, Robertson, Lee, McRae, Howell and Campbell.
The grave reclamation is being completed under provincial regulations governing cemeteries.
Hodges said reclamation protocol includes publishing the names in two major media outlets. Once the names have been published, there is a waiting period of at least three months. If the owner or a proven family member contacts Mountain View, that name is taken off the list. Hodges said if the owner of the vacant plot or multiple plots is deceased, other family members are entitled to use them. Occupied graves more than 40 years old may also be used. Hodges said each burial plot will hold two regular-sized caskets and up to eight sets of cremated remains.
Allowing families to bury several loved ones in a single grave reduces the 125-year-old cemetery's ecological footprint and is one of the reasons Mountain View became the first municipal-owned cemetery in North America to be given a "green hybrid" designation by the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Green Burial Council. Formed in 2005, the council is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging environmentally sustainable burials.
In anticipation of reclaiming up to 1,000 burial plots, Mountain View recently applied to the city for permission to increase the cost to purchase a vacant plot. During a previous interview Hodges told the Courier the cost of a plot could rise to as much as $10,000. But due to the shortage of burial spaces, the cemetery received permission to charge $22,500. Hodges said if a family member comes forward and can prove the grave was willed or transferred to them, it's theirs.
Hodges said so far 160 plots have been reclaimed and 100 of those became available for sale last summer. Whether some reclaimed plots will be suitable for sale also depends on the size of the marker or monument. If the monument is huge and marks a family plot of graves, some of which are still empty, it will likely remain in place. If a marker or monument is small enough, it can be moved closer to the family plots in use.
For more information and a list of names of owners of unclaimed plots, visit vancouver. ca/cemetery.
sthomas@vancourier.com
Twitter: @sthomas10
