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Planning commission amends development code to add cemetery protections; fence remains optional with height cap
Summary
The planning commission voted to add language to the Unified Development Ordinance requiring professional documentation and a 25-foot buffer for discovered graves or cemeteries in development projects, and to keep fencing optional while capping built fences at six feet and requiring 50% opacity.
The Florence City Planning Commission voted to amend the Unified Development Ordinance to add procedures and protections when graves, cemeteries or similar burial facilities are discovered on development sites.
Under the change the ordinance will require a professional archaeologist or other qualified professional to determine the boundary of any discovered cemetery, document its history and provide maps and coordinates. Lots that contain graves would be deeded separately, must include a 25-foot buffer around the cemetery perimeter that cannot include graves, and must provide access via a minimum 20-foot private or public easement. The draft language also required staking of graves during construction to prevent accidental disturbance until certificates of occupancy are issued for adjoining properties.
Commission debate focused heavily on fences and owner responsibility. Staff said the draft had initially proposed a modest fence standard but commissioners raised concerns that a four-foot fence would be too low to deter desecration or accidental damage. Commissioners and staff discussed deferring to the city’s standard fence rules while preserving the 25-foot buffer; several members opposed requiring property owners to build fences around private family plots.
The final motion the commission approved kept fencing optional, but placed an upper height limit on fences associated with these lots: no greater than six feet without a variance, and a 50 percent opacity requirement so fences are not fully opaque. The commission recorded the final vote as four in favor, one opposed and one abstention (the vote was taken by show of hands). The ordinance amendment also retained the 25-foot non-grave buffer yard requirement and the requirement that the cemetery lots be deeded separately and be accessible.
Commissioner discussion referenced state requirements that excavations or development stop and be documented when human remains are found; staff noted desecration of graves is illegal under state law and that separate state processes exist for relocating graves, which are distinct from the city’s new development standards.
Supporters of stronger protections cited the need to preserve historic and family grave sites as the city grows and farmland and wooded parcels are developed. Other commissioners cautioned against imposing undue costs on private property owners who have small, family cemeteries on their land.
The amendment as adopted will apply across zoning districts and to subdivisions; it creates a process to have a professional locate and document burial sites and sets minimum access, buffer and recordation standards. The ordinance text approved on the record allows property owners to decide whether to erect a fence and caps permitted fence height consistent with city fence standards unless a property owner seeks a variance.
