Planning for growth usually conjures up questions about transportation, schools, water and housing -- things that have to do with the living.

But the dead are creating their own growth problems for communities. Cemeteries are filling up quickly, and the ever-growing living population makes it ever more difficult to buy land to bury the dead. Alpine, Orem, Pleasant Grove and Provo have acquired additional land for cemeteries.

Orem is using its extra space as a soccer field until it's needed. American Fork has imposed a moratorium on plot sales in order to keep its cemetery from filling up too fast. Mapleton, Eagle Mountain and Genola are seeking to establish cemeteries for their own residents, a sign that those communities are coming of age.

As the population grows and land becomes scarce, it's going to be more expensive to establish new burial grounds. Mapleton and Genola are planning to spend $1 million each on cemeteries. And that need won't go away. Death is a universal constant.

Unlike other growth issues, however, death has a fairly easy fix, though not everyone is comfortable with it. It is cremation, which comes at a fraction of the price of embalming and burial. Cremation instantly solves the problem of interment space. Remains need not be placed in a cemetery at all. For example, ashes are commonly scattered in places of personal meaning, allowing a departed loved one to become part of a local landscape or seascape. One company even bundles cremated remains (called cremains) into a satellite that orbits the earth for awhile before burining up in the atmosphere upon re-entry. Among those who have had their cremains launched into space are "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and James Doohan, who played Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery Scott.

Space missions aside, cremation usually costs less than $1,000, compared to many thousands of dollars for embalming and burial in a sealed casket -- costs that can burden family members for years to come.

Burial of ashes (for those who choose cremation but insist on burial) requires only a small fraction of the space required for conventional approach. Arlington National Cemetery established a columbarium -- a vault with individual recesses -- to hold 50,000 cremated remains as a way to preserve space in the nation's premiere military cemetery.

A columbarium could be a way for a city to extend the life of its cemetery and cope with future growth. It could do more in less space.

The only hurdle to cremation around the world seems to be cultural or religious. Cremation is ordinarlily not allowed under the traditions of Judaism or Islam. The Vatican allows it for Catholics.

Cremation is traditional for Buddhists, as it is believed to allow the soul to quit the body and move to its next stage of existence. The Buddha himself was cremated. Hindus view fire as a sacred gateway to the spirit world and also encourage the practice.

Utah's predominant Christian church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, does not encourage cremation as a way to dispose of the mortal body, though it does not prohibit the practice. It advises members around the world to cremate if local laws or extenuating circumstances require it.

Former LDS Church President Joseph Fielding Smith said that the body will be reconstituted in the resurrection, regardless of what has happened to it after death.

There are signs that more Utahns are embracing cremation. Utah Department of Health statistics show that the number of cremations performed in the state increased about 20 percent between 1999 and 2005. In 2005, the last year for which the state has statistics, 21 percent of the state's dead were cremated.

Cremation certainly seems more respectful than the space-saving practice in Europe of digging up skeletons, stashing them in tighter quarters and reusing the grave for someone else. Americans prefer to think that "Rest in Peace" means "Do Not Disturb."

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What do you thinkfi

Should cremation be encouraged in Utahfi Send your comments to dhpolls@heraldextra.com or call 344-2942. Please leave your name, hometown and phone number with your comments. E-mail comments should not exceed 100 words; voice-mail comments should be no longer than 30 seconds. Anonymous and unverifiable responses will not be published.

The Daily Herald will publish comments on May 6.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A6.