"I see dead people … or do I?" Cemeteries in Subdivisions.
So. My realtor friend recently contacted me frantic and bewildered.
Apparently, she was trying to sell 2 adjacent lots in a subdivision. These lots are owned by her close friends and they purchased them 20+ years ago. Just before he sale closes, someone shows up with a subdivision plat from 1988 that shows a cemetery covering the majority of both lots. As one can imagine, the sell falls flat, she and the owners are upset, and she calls her surveyor friend (Me).
I dug around and found the Subdivision Plat with the cemetery on it as well as a1987 map that depicts the cemetery on the property before it was subdivided. There’s even as smaller area within the cemetery drawn with, what looks like, the words “existing graves” noted. (I’ve attached 2 pics) I call the County Tax Mapper (who is also a surveyor) and ask him how does a subdivision get platted over a cemetery.
“Good question” he says. We have a pleasant conversation and speculate on what could have happened 36 years ago that yielded the current situation.
The next day I receive a call from my realtor friend and her level of irritation is off the chart as she tells me that they changed the GIS so that it now shows a cemetery in the middle of where the two lots were. All that is left of the lots are disjointed, noncontiguous remnants of its previous self.
She has since hired a firm to use Ground Penetrating Radar to scan over both lots. Nothing shows up except for the existing utilities . She brings all this to the County and no one knows what to do.
Now. My questions is: IF, in fact, there are no bodies interred in the area that was marked cemetery, how does one go about legally removing the “Cemetery” designation from the land? Apparently the county doesn’t know because it’s never been done.
Any Ideas?- This discussion was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by firestix.
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