AGENDA #13
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TO: |
Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager |
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FROM: |
George N. Small, Engineering Director |
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SUBJECT: |
Proposed Sale of Town Cemetery |
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DATE: |
April 18, 2007 |
This memorandum provides information regarding the possible sale of the Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery on Legion Road.
The Town’s Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery property includes approximately 11 acres of cleared land currently in operation as a cemetery and approximately 10 acres of wooded, undeveloped land. These 21 acres of Town-owned land are located between Legion Road and Fordham Boulevard, east of the Sheraton Hotel property on Europa Drive.
The Town Council informally discussed the possible sale of this cemetery property in 1995 and in 2005, but detailed consideration of the matter was not pursued by the Council on either occasion.
Chapel Hill does not sell burial plots fee simple in the Memorial Cemetery. Rather, the Town sells interment rights that allow burials on property owned by the Town. This has been a key point in past discussions of the sale of the cemetery. If the Town sold the cemetery property, some type of legal arrangement would be necessary to transfer the interment rights (originally issued by the Town) to the new property owner. If and how this could be done has not yet been thoroughly investigated.
An alternative that has also been considered would involve subdividing the property into developed and undeveloped parcels and selling one or both individually.
If the Council wishes to give further consideration to the possible sale of the Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery property, we suggest that the Council direct the Manager to have the property appraised and to solicit offers from interested parties for purchase of all or part of the 21 acres of land.
Concurrently, we would investigate the feasibility of transferring the interment rights for those plots that have already been purchased.