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Residents, historical commission urge caution as council weighs private family burial plots
Summary
A Tiverton preservation commissioner urged the Town Council to resist allowing private family burial plots, warning that small cemeteries often become neglected or lost; council members raised questions about maintenance, access and long-term protections and ultimately did not instruct the solicitor to move the draft ordinance forward.
Eileen Costa, preservation and restoration coordinator for the Tiverton Historical Cemeteries Commission, warned the Town Council that allowing private family burial plots on private property risks creating memorials that “one day [become] a lost memorial to your loved ones.” Costa said restorations of older cemeteries show family plots are often abandoned or destroyed when property changes hands.
The issue surfaced during public comment after the council published a draft ordinance to permit family burial plots. Costa urged council members to consult existing local ordinances and requested the commission’s input when the town develops any proposal. “Without the support and help of the younger generations right now, the same will happen to new family plots should they be allowed,” she said.
Council discussion focused on practical safeguards rather than the principle of family burial. Councillors asked about minimum lot size, perpetual maintenance funds, enforcement and how cemetery access would be preserved when property is sold. Several members, citing Costa’s examples of abandoned or bulldozed plots and the difficulty of enforcing maintenance decades later, said they were not prepared to give the solicitor a drafting assignment without broader input from the Historical Cemeteries Commission and the town planner.
Solicitor materials attached sample ordinances from other towns for reference, but councillors asked for local criteria (including maintenance requirements, permanence guarantees, and permitted zones) before instructing legal staff to prepare a town-specific draft. After discussion, councillors reported insufficient support to move the item forward at this time: the matter will not be sent to the solicitor for a working draft without additional stakeholder input.
The council’s next procedural step, if it reopens the topic, is expected to include consultation with the Historical Cemeteries Commission, the planner and the town solicitor and explicit language about maintenance guarantees and transferability of burial rights.
