Utah County's growth means more folks occupying the same space and an increasing demand for finite resources -- and that goes for dead people, too.

Several local communities have faced or are facing the need for more room in their cemeteries, a need that comes right in the middle of a real estate boom that's driven up land prices.

That run-up, along with a trend toward cremation in the funeral industry, also means it's likely that cities will keep taking on the responsibility of ensuring room for burials for decades to come because the private cemetery business isn't as attractive as it used to be.

Several cities, including Alpine, Orem, Pleasant Grove and Provo, have acquired more cemetery property. Provo is negotiating for another piece, American Fork is looking to expand, and Mapleton, Eagle Mountain and Genola want to establish city cemeteries.

It all comes down to growth, said Alan Sundquist, sexton of the city of Orem's cemetery.

"We're selling 500 to 600 lots a year and we're doing about 300 burials a year. It averages out to being about one a day," he said.

"All the cemeteries are increasing in burials per year. Everybody is having to deal with the same things as us."

Pre-planning

Cemeteries have always been an important part of community planning, along with allocations for roads and utilities.

"When many of the rural communities were originally planned, the forefathers of the communities set aside land to bury their dead because it was very important to them," said Shaun Myers, who is president of Myers Mortuary in Ogden and spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association.

"What's happened in many areas -- and Utah County is a great example -- the cities have expanded so much that the foresight of our founding fathers didn't envision that the growth would be so great."

The situation is common in many fast-growing metropolitan areas.

"Typically, what government has depended on is for small businesses to step in and fill that need," Myers said.

But, he added, "I don't know that there's an interest for a private entity to develop a cemetery" in Utah County because private cemeteries aren't the steady, decent business venture they used to be.

Increasing cremation rates are one factor. More people are choosing cremation over burial nationally, and in Utah the percentage of cremations increased from 17.4 percent of deaths in 2000 to a projected 22 percent of deaths in 2005, according to the Cremation Association of North America.

Land prices are another.

"We have seen a spike in land prices over the last year that has really been phenomenal," said Jon Anderson, a partner in Commerce CRG's Provo-Orem office. In some places, highway frontage property that sold for $6 a foot increased to as much as $13 a foot, and industrial property went from $3 to $4 a foot to as much as $8 a foot. Increases of 50 percent are not unusual, he said.

That's a barrier to cemetery investment, Myers said.

"Land is so expensive, and cemeteries have lost some of that profitability," he said. "It's a very challenging and difficult business to be in."

Adding and expanding

For better or worse, though, many cities are in that business, and interest is high.

"We have such a demand," said Ula Hemingway, who chairs Alpine's cemetery commission. "We're continually expanding."

Alpine has a moratorium on plot sales unless there's someone who needs to be buried. The city's 20-acre cemetery still has room, but the land has to be prepped for burials first.

Plans call for adding 300 plots a year for the next four or five years, said city manager Ted Stillman, which should give the cemetery about a 15-year lifespan. There are also about 2,000 plots that were sold but not used, and the city is trying to repurchase those.

A sales moratorium is also in place in American Fork, and city leaders are seeking both short- and long-term solutions.

The immediate plan is to expand American Fork's cemetery into a park immediately south of the current property. (Park facilities will be relocated to Art Dye Park.)

"This is a very economic way to go," Mayor Heber Thompson said. "We are not having to acquire any more land for this near-term fix."

The city will have to spend money for the additional 20 acres sought to meet projected burial needs through 2030. The focus now is on state-owned land near the Utah State Developmental Center.

Pleasant Grove purchased 10 acres five years ago, and the additional space is expected to last 20 years.

Provo officials want to expand the city's 144-acre cemetery by eight acres; two parcels on the cemetery's west side have been purchased, and negotiations continue on the third and final piece. That's expected to extend the cemetery's life by 40 to 50 years.

"It may sell sooner than that, but as far as having it filled with burials, it might take that long," said Provo parks and recreation director Roger Thomas. "To buy that land is not cheap, and as a result ... you have to reconsider what you will sell those plots for down the road."

No decisions on sales prices have been made, he added.

Orem has land waiting next to its cemetery -- 18 acres that's now a soccer field -- that's expected to last 30 years. The land was purchased five years ago before values started appreciating, said Sundquist, the Orem sexton.

"We only had to purchase three homes down there," he said. "The price would be outrageous if we had to do that now."

Springville and Spanish Fork have decades of use left in their cemeteries, according to officials from those cities. Lehi just developed another 15 acres of its 65-acre property, and cemetery director Carl Buhler said there's room for about 2,000 more burials, or about 10 more years of use.

"But," he added, "the way the population is growing, it's hard to say."

Plotting for plots

In some cities without cemeteries, residents are demanding that they be established.

Genola acted on those wishes and purchased 20 acres next to the town hall last year. The first plots are expected to be available for sale by this summer.

It wasn't cheap, however.

"We paid the going price for land. We took out a million dollar loan," said Mayor Eric Hazelet. Some of that money will be used for developing the first acre of the new cemetery.

"One of the things that residents asked for on a regular basis was a cemetery," he said. "Many of the people who are in Genola have been there for a long time."

Mapleton, meanwhile, already has funding in place for 10 acres of cemetery land. Now they just have to find it.

"The investigation continues apace," said city administrator Robert Bradshaw. As part of a land exchange, a developer is making $1 million available to the city to found a cemetery.

"We are fortunate," Bradshaw said. "Without the donation it would be extremely difficult."

Eagle Mountain city officials have discussed founding a cemetery and plan to form a cemetery advisory board, but those plans are on the back burner.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.