Improvements to Coquitlam’s cemetery will continue through the winter and spring, bringing more green burial options by next summer.
COQUITLAM, B.C., Dec. 8, 2020 – Improvements to Coquitlam’s cemetery will continue through the winter and spring, bringing more green burial options by next summer.
Council last night approved the detailed design for further enhancements at the north end of Robinson Memorial Park Cemetery, following work now under way at the south end. Together, the two projects make up Phase 1 in the City’s three-phase 20-year Cemetery Services Plan, intended to improve services and expand the current limited burial options at the Southwest Coquitlam cemetery.
Services to Meet Changing Needs
The Phase 1 additions, intended to meet both short-term and long-term community needs, will address the growing desire for more environmentally-friendly options such as cremations and green burials with biodegradable shrouds or caskets.
Phase 1B, set to go to tender this month, will significantly expand the options for cemetery clients with 777 new green burial plots with common markers, 395 green burial plots with individual markers, 383 double-depth crypts for co-burials, and 25 family cremation estates.
A new vegetation buffer will also be added along Foster Avenue and parts of Robinson Street to increase privacy for visitors and improve the site’s appearance to neighbours and passersby. As well, an internal road will be extended to create a secondary exit and lined with 28 new shade trees.
Construction on Phase 1B is timed to begin shortly after January’s anticipated completion of Phase 1A, which began in November to add 93 double-depth crypts, 65 cremation plots and a scattering garden. In all, Phase 1 will expand the cemetery’s developed area by 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres).
The project will be funded through the City’s Land Sale Reserve, to be reimbursed over time through cemetery revenues.
About the Cemetery Services Plan
The need to develop a Cemetery Services Plan was identified in the Parks, Recreation & Culture Master Plan. With space for full burial plots expected to run out within the next few years, the plan will help address this need while guiding the City’s cemetery services until 2039.
Improvements are planned in three phases: Phase 1 in 2020/2021, Phase 2 in 2023 and Phase 3 in 2030. A copy of the plan can be found at www.coquitlam.ca/cemeteryplan.
About Robinson Cemetery
Robinson Memorial Park Cemetery is a 3.4-hectare (8.5-acre) site in Southwest Coquitlam, owned and operated by the City, and has been in operation since 1935. The cemetery offers full burial services to current and former residents of Coquitlam as well as cremation burial options for the general public, and operates on a direct cost-recovery basis.
More information about cemetery services is posted at www.coquitlam.ca/cemetery.
Media contact:
Lanny Englund
Manager, Parks Planning & Forestry
City of Coquitlam
604-927-3549
lenglund@coquitlam.ca