LYNNFIELD — The town’s cemeteries are running out of burial plots.
Public Works Director John Tomasz said the issue came to the town’s attention around three years ago when he notified officials that the two cemeteries operated by the town, Forest Hill Cemetery and Willow Cemetery, are running out of space.
“The director said while we are not running dangerously low on plots, we might at some point in the not-too-distant future run into a thing where we have someone who is deceased and there are no plots for that,” Assistant Town Administrator Robert Curtin said.
It is necessary for the town to address the issue, as Massachusetts General Law Chapter 114 Section 110 dictates that “each town shall provide one or more suitable places for the interment of persons dying within its limits.”
Tomasz said the town will have to tackle the problem in the coming decades.
“Based upon the available sites, we have about a 15-year supply,” he said. “If you’re a new resident in town and you’d like to be buried in Lynnfield, I’d say by 2040 you might be out of luck.”
In response to the concerns, the town changed its policy on purchasing sites in advance in 2021, putting a moratorium in place to only allow plots to be purchased when a person has already died.
“There was a rush during COVID, so we had to kind of pull things back a bit,” Tomasz said.
Curtin said the town also raised fees for plots, which he said in the past were very low, encouraging many to buy plots.
“Even if you didn’t feel that much of a connection to the town of Lynnfield but you lived here, it was a place to get a very cheap plot,” Curtin said.
Tomasz said ownership of all plots that were purchased in advance will remain in place. He said pre-purchased plots usually make up about half of the approximately 50 burials and cremations at the cemeteries per year.
One of the factors that will determine the timeline is whether the cemeteries get more cremations or full burials. Between Lynnfield’s two cemeteries, around 155 full burial plots are available for sale.
Cremations, which take up much less space per plot, became popular in the past decade according to Tomasz. He said it is a trend that would allow the cemeteries more time before they reach capacity.
Willow Cemetery is one of two cemeteries run by Lynnfield DPW. (James Bartlett)
“15 years is probably a worst-case scenario assuming people buy full-size burial plots,” Tomasz said. “Even under the best case, you’re probably looking at somewhere between year 15 and year 25 when there will probably be no spaces available, whether it be a full burial or a cremation.”
According to Curtin, the town is planning to form a committee to address the issue in the near future, but he did not give a timeline for when it would be created.
He said the committee would look at several possibilities, including the expansion of cemeteries, which Tomasz said is the easiest option.
However, Curtin acknowledged that would be difficult given the age of the cemeteries, which were both established in the mid-1800s.
“These are old cemeteries, we don’t have vast unused portions of land,” he said. “We’re looking at places we might expand, but Lynnfield property is very expensive.”
Tomasz said the committee was a smart move for the town to be proactive about the issue.
“You don’t want to wait until the last minute,” Tomasz said.
