Waterfront property starting at $19,500! To die for!

[Holden West]

Enter now for a chunk of Victoriana eternity
Desirable cemetery resorts to lottery as demand exceeds available space

SHANNON MONEO

Special to The Globe and Mail POSTED ON 30/10/06

VICTORIA -- Only good fortune and deep pockets will secure a burial plot at Victoria's famed Ross Bay Cemetery.

The price for a graveyard spot at one of Canada's premier Victorian-style cemeteries jumped by 70 per cent this year, and since demand exceeds supply, prospective buyers must also enter a draw.

Victoria residents will pay $19,500 for a plot, up from $11,500. Non-residents will pay $22,500 instead of $17,500.

And because of the great interest in getting a plot, the Board of Cemetery Trustees of Greater Victoria decided in 2004 to draw names.

That year, 157 people entered the contest for seven Ross Bay plots, hoping to join the ranks of industrialist Sir James Douglas, prospector Billy Barker and artist Emily Carr.

The man in charge of Ross Bay plot sales doesn't think the draw, with its mandatory skill-testing math question, has put a damper on the demand for a chunk of Victoriana eternity.

Stephen Olson, secretary-treasurer for the Board of Cemetery Trustees, receives constant calls from people anxious to get a Ross Bay burial plot.

"They want to win the opportunity to spend $20,000," said Mr. Olson. "To some, it's very important."

Ross Bay has cachet, largely due to its historic significance and spellbinding setting.

The 11-hectare graveyard overlooks the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Washington's Olympic Mountains and attracts visitors and locals for regular tours.

The cemetery, opened in 1873 and now bounded by busy Dallas and Fairfield Roads, features winding carriage ways, fences and curbs. Massive obelisks, crumbling stone angels and crosses of all sorts rest between yew and hawthorn trees.

"It has the appearance of a very old landscape," said John Adams, a local historian who wrote The Historic Guide to Ross Bay Cemetery. "It is an inspiring site."

The Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria has unearthed research stating that there could be up to 270 unused plots at Ross Bay. They were either purchased or reserved at least 90 years ago. In most cases, the owners or their descendants have left the area or died and were buried elsewhere.

The discoveries were made as part of a 10-year Ross Bay inventory of monuments, the number of people interred -- there are 28,500 -- and the plots themselves, said Mr. Adams, the founding president of the 300-member Old Cemeteries Society.

Intensive detective work began five years ago to track down the decades-old plot purchasers. When notices regarding the mystery plots and their last known owners were publicized earlier this year, only three families came forward to claim their inheritances.

The first batch of 50 to 70 reclaimed plots will become available in several months, Mr. Olson said. The 150 unsuccessful buyers from 2004 will have their entries added to the dozens more expected for round two.

Mr. Olson, who has been in the funeral business for 30 years, and based at Royal Oak Burial Park for the last nine, suspects other Canadian municipalities with old cemeteries have had to resort to lotteries and substantial price hikes due to demand for plots.

A portion of the plot proceeds will be used to upgrade Ross Bay, including security improvements. But the review of plot pricing in April, 2005, was also prompted by the desire to restrict speculative purchase and resale of plots. (When someone "buys" a plot, they purchase the right to be buried in that spot, not the actual land.)

In late September, Victoria resident Ron Simmons ran an advertisement for a Ross Bay plot, asking $25,500 for a four-foot by eight-foot plot. He received a few inquiries but the lot remains unsold.

At Victoria's second municipally owned Royal Oak Burial Park, four-foot by nine-foot plots for one casket or two cremation urns have been advertised for $1,200.

Royal Oak opened in 1923 and it has room for at least 75 years. At 54 hectares in size, it is B.C.'s largest municipal cemetery.

At Hatley Memorial Gardens, west of Ross Bay in the Victoria suburb of Colwood, an October advertisement offered two plots and two cremation spots for a total of $1,600.

Privately owned by Memorial Gardens Canada, Hatley's plots are four-feet by nine-feet. It opened in 1932 and should have space until about 2090.

[VicHockeyFan]

Why have a lottery? Maximize revenue by having an auction. Stupid City.

[Holden West]

^Since when are cemeteries only for rich people?

[VicHockeyFan]

Why is it that governments don't believe in supply and demand (see: water pricing, restrictions, rationing)? Maximize revenue, and you can keep down taxes. So high plot prices at RB is a voluntary tax that you can opt out of if you want. All other Victoria property owners would benefit from high plot prices by a lowering of their involuntray property tax. I know its only a buck or three per taxpayer, but all those buck or threes add up to my $1000 yearly tax bill.

There are lots of cemetaries that charge way less than $19,500 per plot. Poor people can use them (they can also opt to eat cake in the off-chance of high bread prices :P ).

[Scaper]

Funny....a dead person isn't a rich person anymore....no different than a poor person that died.....

Both dead and no chance the hurst is pulling a U haul.....So...in the end....does it really matter? To me it matters where my spirit lies on the other side.

[Dylan Leblanc]

I agree with you Vic 100%. People should get out of life what they are worth to society, not have the government force others to subsidise them. :evil:

[aastra]

If some rich bozo wants to fork out an obscene amount of cash to be buried in the vicinity of regional celebrities then who am I to oppose milking him for all he's worth?

It's no skin off my butt that my butt won't be rotting away in a posh cemetery because the price was too high. You can throw my remains to snapping turtles for all I care.

[m0nkyman]

Originally Posted by Holden West

^Since when are cemeteries only for rich people?

Since when has Dallas Road not been for rich people?

[Jada]

Wait a minute.. I grew up on dallas road, in a low income housing co-op. The co-op is still there. There are so few houses along Dallas road that I wouldnt consider it strictly for the rich. In 1998 I also rented a 5 bedroom house on dallas road for only $1200 a month..definitly not only for the rich!

[gumgum]

Things have changed Jada.
The co-op's still there, but those rental homes are dissapearing - being torn down for high-end condos.

[Jada]

My old address of 88 Dallas Road (which was actually condemned while I was living there), has been converted into lovely condo townhomes.

[gumgum]

Hmmm....Must have been thinking of another co-op then.