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Double graves coming to Surrey civic cemeteries for the first time

Surrey council approves cemetery bylaw changes, which will also allow upright headstones
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The 14-acre Surrey Centre Cemetery was acquired by the City of Surrey in 1924 and is located at 16671 Old McLellan Road. (Photo: surrey.ca)

SURREY — If you want to be buried in the same plot with a loved one, or have an upright headstone in Surrey, you now can at its civic cemeteries.

Upright headstones haven’t been allowed in Surrey’s civic cemeteries since the mid-1900s, but city council just approved them during a meeting Monday night.

And for the first time, two people can be buried in caskets in the same grave at any of the city’s three civic cemeteries: One above and one below.

The changes came about as a result of demand, but also the scarcity of land as the city grows, said City of Surrey’s Richard Ryan, manager of business operations and support services in the parks division.

While headstones and centrally located cemeteries were common in the early 1900s, Ryan explained there was a shift in North American society.

“People started feeling uncomfortable with cemeteries being visible and in central parts of the town. I think it was a general discomfort in the whole discussion of death,” he said. “What happened particularly in the U.S., over time, new cemeteries as they were developed were placed outside of town. Out of town, out of sight.

“They also started building hedges around cemeteries so we didn’t have to see inside,” he added.

It was then that the “lawn cemetery concept” was born, as opposed to having upright headstones, Ryan explained.

Surrey’s Sunnyside Lawn Cemetery is an example of this (pictured left).

“These cemeteries had flat head stones, so if one looks across the landscape of a cemetery, it almost looks like a park. That was around the same time the mechanization of maintenance equipment was implemented. So there was a notion that if you lay markers flat you can drive across the lawn with a large grass-cutting machine, which as it turns out, doesn’t work quite that easily,” he chuckled.

The maintenance aspect was how they “sold it,” said Ryan.

“Fast forward to 2017 and a lot of cemeteries, certainly in North America, people want them to look like cemeteries. Why are we trying to hide the fact that they’re cemeteries? Why are we hiding death, interment, memorialization. It’s part of life.”

See also: Surrey Centre Cemetery a wealth of history

See also: New South Surrey cemetery ‘aims to keep families together’

Ryan noted the City of Surrey has had requests for upright headstones.

“Some people find it quite beautiful. It gives cemeteries that historic feel, in some ways.”

Also, they last longer.

“Acidic rain can damage the stones over time, with rain sitting on them,” Ryan said of flat markers. “They get covered with glass clippings. We have frequent complaints when there are grass clippings over the plaque of a loved one. Some people find it disrespectful.”

While private cemeteries in Surrey have long offered the upright option, Surrey has decided to do the same, given this societal shift, noted Ryan.

“Part of our job is to try and service the diversity of families we have in Surrey, so we want to provide different options.”

Another option Surrey has decided to offer at its cemeteries is dual-burial in plots.

Ryan said it’s common in other cemeteries throughout Metro Vancouver.

“There really is a scarcity of cemetery land in the Lower Mainland,” he noted. “We’re running short of land. So this provides better use of existing space.”

Just like Surrey must densify its housing market, and build up to made room for new residents, it must utilize land more sustainably in death, and go further down into the earth.

“There’s a need to become more dense and have high density,” he said. “Really it’s a sustainability issue. We can’t just keep buying cemetery land so we need to utilize the existing lands we have.

“And also, there’s a lot of families or particular couples that would like both members of their couple interred in the one area,” Ryan added. “So people often want side-by-side urns, and now we’re doing that for full-size caskets.”

See also: Vimy Ridge memorial oak tree planted in Surrey Centre Cemetery

See also: HISTORY: Cloverdale Cenotaph holds nearly a century of memories

Meantime, the City of Surrey will soon embark on more than $1 million of upgrades to the Surrey Centre Cemetery in west Cloverdale.

“We got the permit a day or two ago,” Ryan told the Now-Leader on Thursday (Nov. 23). “Part of that will be having sections for upright, and double-depth.”

The upgrades will also include park-like amenities, improved landscaping, expansion of the woodland garden and walking paths to “allow the community to use it like a park.”

“It can be a place where you come to remember loved ones, or just to come, walk and enjoy beautiful landscapes,” said Ryan.

The “rigorous” permit process took a while, he noted, so the upgrades are now set to begin next spring, hoped to be completed before the end of 2018.

“It will significantly beautify that cemetery but also offered renewed capacity,” he said. “We’re almost down to our last 10 plots in the developed area.”

The city also plans to develop a master plan for the Sunnyside Lawn Cemetery, but only after a full-year of consultation with the community, noted Ryan.

The City of Surrey operations the Surrey Centre, Sunnyside Lawn and Hazelmere cemeteries. See more at surrey.ca.



amy.reid@surreynowleader.com

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