Grave Concerns: Review needed for cemetery planning

NRU
April 23, 2014
By Edward LaRusic

An expert in the field says that planning for cemeteries is hindered by a lack of policy and with the upcoming 2015 review of the Greenbelt Plan and other legislation, new language may help municipalities plan for much needed growth in cemeteries.

In 2015, the province will be conducting a coordinated review of the Greenbelt Plan, Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan and Niagara Escarpment Plan, along with the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. As part of that review, agencies such as the Niagara Escarpment Commission are examining the current policy framework to determine whether new language is needed to address cemeteries as a use within its catchment area.

LARKIN + Associates Planning Consultants Inc. president Michael Larkin told NRU the current framework leaves cemetery planning in the dark.

“It’s very difficult, because there are few policies that assist municipalities in assessing applications for cemeteries. Typically in the land use planning process, when municipalities review their official plans and consider how to deal with growth, they don’t look at the other side of growth being, what happens when people die? Where are you going to put them?” Larkin said that figuring out where cemeteries should be located is tricky. The need for municipalities to justify expensive municipal infrastructure makes them more appropriate for rural areas, but that can be a challenge.

“In the GTA, that’s problematic because of the Greenbelt Plan and Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan. The issue is not whether cemeteries are compatible with the objectives of those plans; the issue is that when the plans were written the [authors] didn’t turn their mind to that type of land use. So there’s a vacuum in the policies that don’t address cemeteries as a land use and whether they’re permitted in certain areas.”

According to a February 2014 discussion paper produced by the Niagara Escarpment Commission, key planning legislation such as the Growth Plan and Greenbelt Plan offer little to no direction about accommodating cemeteries. While the 2005 Provincial Policy Statement does include cemeteries as part of the definition of “cultural heritage landscapes,” the commission notes that the 2005 PPS “is not clear about how new cemeteries should be planned for or where cemeteries should be provided as part of community planning.”

Niagara Escarpment Commission senior strategic advisor Kellie McCormack said in an email to NRU that the commission has received a number of requests in recent years from the cemetery industry to clarify its position.

“The current [Niagara Escarpment Plan area] does not have explicit policies for cemeteries and related uses,” she said.

McCormack said that staff hoped to be proactive in addressing the matter of cemeteries in the Niagara Escarpment area, providing an opportunity to identify the “scope and scale” of cemetery development that may be appropriate on the lands.

“The Niagara Escarpment and land in its vicinity is to be maintained substantially as a continuous natural environment and only such development that is compatible with that natural environment is to occur … a challenge that exists for cemetery planning in the [Niagara Escarpment Plan area] may be that the scale and commercial nature of new cemeteries may be larger and more intensive than what the [Niagara Escarpment Commission] would consider compatible development.”

In the current environment, Larkin said, many municipalities have interpreted provincial legislation as being an impediment to cemeteries, making Ontario Municipal Board hearings “quite common.” them for housing, commercial, industrial, schools, and all that stuff , but they don’t consider the requirements for cemeteries.”

Without changes to document such as the Greenbelt Plan, some municipalities will continue to find it a challenge to find room for cemeteries within their communities. York Region long range planning director Valerie Shuttleworth said the region’s 2010 official plan has some language that
allow cemeteries in rural areas, albeit the relevant sections are currently under appeal at the Ontario Municipal Board.

But, she said, much of the land in York Region is designated as prime agricultural lands, which limits where new cemeteries can go.

“My reading is that the Greenbelt Plan does not allow [cemeteries on prime agricultural land]. It’s not crystal clear. There are non-agricultural use policies in the Greenbelt Plan. [They] speak to those non-agricultural uses not locating on special crop or prime agriculture land.”

As it stands, Shuttleworth said that much of the land the region considers appropriate for cemeteries is located in Georgina, far from the urban centres in the southern half of the region.

Shuttleworth said that changes to provincial legislation are “certainly something that we’re looking to discuss,” and that the region is doing its bests to ensure cemetery needs are met.

However, the relative timelines within which the region and cemetery groups work can be problematic.

“Our planning horizon is 20 years, and for most of the cemetery groups we’re talking with it’s 100 years. We’re doing our best to accommodate their needs.”

The 2014 PPS—which comes into force April 31—says that accommodating institutional uses such as cemeteries is to be considered part of sustaining healthy communities.

Larkin said that the new PPS clarifies that cemeteries are a permitted use on rural lands, which he said is a “step in the right direction.”

“The inference [with the new PPS language] is when municipalities review their official plans and start preparing their land budgets they’re going to have to start looking at [cemetery uses] actively, rather than ignoring the problem.”