Chapter 15 - § 15.4 • MUNICIPAL CEMETERIES

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 15.4 • MUNICIPAL CEMETERIES

§ 15.4.1—Establishment of Municipal Cemeteries

The governing body of any municipality has the power to establish and regulate cemeteries within or without the municipality, to acquire lands therefor, by purchase or otherwise, and to cause cemeteries to be removed and prohibit their establishment within one mile of the municipality.³⁰

§ 15.4.2—Burial Rights

Prior to August 7, 2006, a municipality could apparently sell burial spaces.³¹ On and after that date, a municipality may not convey title to the real property surveyed as a lot in a cemetery for use as a burial space, but may grant interment rights to a burial space in a cemetery.³²

§ 15.4.3—Right to Reclaim Abandoned Graves

If there is a burial space in a cemetery in which no remains have been interred, no burial memorial has been placed, and no other improvement has been made for a continuous period of no less than 75 years, the governing body of the municipality may initiate the process of reclaiming title to the burial space.³³ If a person submits to the cemetery authority a legitimate claim to a burial space that the governing body has reclaimed, the governing body must transfer to the person at no charge a burial space that, to the extent possible, is equivalent to the reclaimed burial space.³⁴

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Notes:

^[30] C.R.S. § 31-25-702. In this context, the term "cemetery" means any cemetery owned, managed, or controlled by a municipality. C.R.S.§ 31-25-701(2).

^[31] See C.R.S. § 31-25-701(3): "'Owner' means any person owning . . . any burial space."

^[32] C.R.S. § 12-12-116(7).

^[33] C.R.S. § 31-25-708(1). For the...