Burial companyMeadowrest Memorial Gardens (MMG) will diversify its offering to customers following approval from the National Environmental Planning Agency (NEPA) to expand the burial ground in St Catherine by 19 acres.

Communications director for the Meadowrest Memorial Elaine Commissiong, while tight-lipped on the new developments, told the Jamaica Observer that the company will be hosting US cemetery designer Jack Goodnoe for its annual funeral director’s brunch on Tuesday to address what he sees as designs of the future.

According to Meadowrest Memorial, Goodnoe’s 40 years of experience in strategic land use planning and site design allow him to provide site design feasibilities and capacity assessments, which he believes, many Jamaican funeral service entrepreneurs can benefit from.

Meadowrest Memorial, which is owned by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, in January submitted an environmental impact assessment for the proposed expansion of its cemetery in Whittaker’s Mountain, St Catherine.

The burial company in its report to NEPA reasoned that there is urgent need for expansion of the facility given the present demand of approximately 2,000 interments annually from Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine, 27 per cent of which are interred at its cemetery.

“This number does not include the population of other parishes and overseas mourners who use the facility,” the report read. “It is well known that there is an increasing shortage of suitable burial space in Kingston and St. Andrew, and this was foreseen in the early 1990’s by members of the Meadowbrook United Church. Given the number of burials that MMG has been able to accommodate over the years, the need for such a project is self-evident.”

The neighbouring Dovecot Memorial Gardens has also submitted a request to NEPA to expand its facility to cover 71 acres, which will be separated from the current Dovecot Cemetery by a parochial dirt road and a small settlement which form part of Bendon Pen district.

Dovecot, in its request, reasoned that it has become critical to expand the existing memorial gardens as the current area used for burials has run out of space.

“Customers are complaining that due to the limited space available they are not able to choose a location that they deem ideal for their loved ones and funerals are too close together in proximity. Dovecot Memorial Park is one of the main cemeteries that serve people in the parishes of Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine,” it said.

Meadowrest’s proposal is to increase the cemetery by approximately 19.8 hectares (49 acres), from the existing 12.15 hectares (30 acres). The burial company hopes to construct an average of 1,000 single vaults and 1,500 double vaults annually on the basis that 47 acres will be used for burials, with the remaining acreage allocated for parking and/or natural vegetation.

Development of the site, which lays in close proximity the Green Acres and Fraser’s Content communities in St Catherine and the adjacent Dovecot Cemetery, is slated to occur over the next five years and the life of the cemetery is estimated at 43 years.

Building approval for the site was granted by the St Catherine Parish Council in 1992. The proposed expansion area is characterised by open, rolling grassland with scattered trees. Meadowrest wants to introduce the lawn cemetery concept citing that it will minimise maintenance problems.

“Primary aims are to achieve visual simplicity and ease of maintenance. These cemeteries feature no upright headstones but rows of uniform graves marked by identifying plaques. The lawns can be mowed as if it were a football field as the effect is much the same. These cemeteries were designed to facilitate alternative uses when full,” the report said.