Danville City Commission approves revised cemeteries rules with annual exemption permit

The Danville City Commission on a special-called vote approved a revised set of cemeteries rules and regulations (November 2025 draft) that create an annual exemption permit allowing certain decorations and flower beds if a registrant files and maintains the items.

City Engineer Josh Morgan, who presented the changes, said the city held a 90-day public comment period that produced about 100 submissions and that staff rewrote portions of the draft to allow previously prohibited items when an exemption form is completed. "Because a lot of times, we don't even know. We have no way of knowing who's actually doing the decorating of that grave," Morgan said, describing the permit as a way to "open the dialogue between the city and whoever is tending to that grave." The exemption permit will be required annually and include name, email, phone, the gravesite and the item description.

Key technical limits in the approved draft include a size cap for permitted flower beds (no wider than a headstone and no deeper than 16 inches from the front of the stone) and a restriction that edging must be concrete, masonry or composite rubber. Morgan said shepherd's hooks remain disallowed in general but may be placed inside an approved flower bed as a compromise. The draft also states that existing plantings such as trees and shrubs may be grandfathered only if the owner registers and agrees to maintain them; staff warned that unregistered, unmaintained items may be removed.

The rules add explicit hours of public use: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during daylight saving time and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. during standard time, and call for on-site signs with QR codes directing visitors to the online exemption form. Morgan said staff will prepare physical packets for people who purchase graves at City Hall and will run outreach before the rules take effect; he recommended delaying implementation until after the winter holidays and indicated staff expect to implement "anytime after January 1" to allow time for signage and systems.

Commissioner (Unidentified Speaker 4) moved to approve the regulations "as presented to us today," Unidentified Speaker 3 seconded, and the commission voted to approve the document. The chair announced, "Motion carries." The motion was recorded on the meeting record and the chair then adjourned the special meeting.

Implementation details — including the exact effective date, schedule for annual renewals, and enforcement cadence for faded or ground-level decorations — will be handled by staff and public works. Morgan said the city is also preparing cemetery software that should improve records access, lot sales and scheduling next year, and that staff will use that system to support the permitting and outreach work.

The commission's action was procedural approval of the rules as presented; no separate ordinance or statutory change was cited during the meeting. The commission did not record a roll-call list of all ayes in the public transcript beyond the three vocal affirmations in the meeting minutes; the chair declared the motion carried and the regulation package approved.