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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-016 Cemetery - Chapter 61 ORDINANCE NO. 2012 -016 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF OCOEE, FLORIDA, REPEALING AND RESTATING CHAPTER 61 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF OCOEE; REPEALING CONFLICTS; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING FOR CODIFICATION; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, Chapter 61 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Ocoee authorizes the City Commission of the City of Ocoee to manage and regulate the operation of city cemeteries; and WHEREAS, the City Commission desires to repeal and restate that Chapter to provide greater oversight over Cemetery operations and to add provisions for columbaria; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF OCOEE, FLORIDA: SECTION 1. Authority. The City Commission of the City of Ocoee has the authority to adopt this Ordinance pursuant to Chapter C -8 of the City Charter and Chapter 61 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Ocoee, Article VIII of the Constitution of the State of Florida, and Chapters 166 and 497, Florida Statutes. SECTION 2. Amendment of Chapter 61. Chapter 61 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Ocoee is hereby repealed and replaced in its entirety with the following language: Chapter 61 — CEMETERIES § 61 -1. Authority. The use and care of the Cemetery are subject to the management and control of the Ocoee City Commission through this Chapter of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Ocoee and the Ocoee Cemetery Rules and Regulations. The City Commission reserves the right to make, amend, and repeal 1 such regulations and policies, as it deems appropriate. The City may, at any time, amend or waive any of its Cemetery Rules and Regulations 1. As a municipal facility, the Cemetery is exempt from licensure under the provisions of Chapter 497, Florida Statutes. However, since the Cemetery exceeds five (5) acres in total area, the mediation procedure authorized under § 497.269(3), Florida Statutes, is available to plot owners and subscribers. 2. The City, in its ownership, management, and operation of the Cemetery, does not deny burial space to any person because of race, creed, marital status, sex, national origin, color, or religion. There are no specifically designated spaces for use by persons whose religious code requires isolation. 3. Under the authority granted by § 497.273, Florida Statutes, the City is the exclusive provider of services related to the interment, entombment, or inurnment of human remains, including the exclusive right to open, prepare for interment or inurnment, and close all ground, mausoleum, and urn burials. The City is also the exclusive provider of initial preneed and at -need sale of interment, inurnment, and all other burial rights within the Cemetery, and may establish minimum standards for burial merchandise or the installation thereof. § 61 -2. - Management, operation and maintenance. The Commission, through the City Manager and his designees, shall manage, operate, and maintain the municipal cemetery subject to any limitations and restrictions set forth herein or contained in applicable law and subject to any future regulations that the Commission may impose. § 61 -3. - Establishment of rules and regulations. The Commission shall establish, and adopt by resolution, the rules and regulations for the use of the cemetery relating to: A. Subdividing the cemetery into burial and inurnment plots and providing columbarium structures for the storage of cremated remains. B. The capacity of each plot and niche. C. The location and specifications of grave spaces, monuments, borders, and other elements of a burial site. D. The specification, provision, operation, marking, and maintenance of niches for the storage of cremated remains. E. The price of burial and inurnment plots and columbarium niches. F. Maintenance of the cemetery and all matters relating to its upkeep. G. The conduct of persons on said cemetery premises for any purpose whatsoever. H. The rights of plot owners to transfer ownership to another party and to designate the persons with the right to use a plot. I. The rights of columbarium niche subscribers to transfer a subscription to another party and to designate the person with the right to use a niche. J. Hours of Operation K. Monuments § 61 -4. - Superintendent; appointment and removal. The City Manager shall appoint a Superintendent of the municipal cemetery. The Superintendent shall be subject to removal at any time by the City Manager. The City Manager may choose to act as the Superintendent of the cemetery and not appoint a second individual. § 61 -5. - Powers and duties of Superintendent. A. Direction of cemetery. The Superintendent shall look after and take proper care of the cemetery and see that no plot therein is used or occupied in violation of this chapter or of any rule or regulation promulgated by the Commission. B. Supervision of interment. The Superintendent shall see that all graves are properly dug and that the human remains are properly interred therein in accordance with the rules and regulations adopted by the Commission. C. Supervision of inurnment. The Superintendent shall see that all columbarium niches are properly opened and closed and that cremated remains are properly placed within the appropriate niche in accordance with the rules and regulations adopted by the Commission. D. The Superintendent or his designated representative must mark the location for any interment, inurnment, or monument within a plot following the identification of the appropriate grave space or inurnment site by the Administrator and the payment of any required fees. Following the interment or inurnment of a deceased person, or the installation of a monument, the Superintendent shall confirm that the action occurred in the appropriate location and in accordance with any permit issued and these Rules and Regulations. Any noted issues shall be promptly reported to the Administrator, who shall notify the decedent's authorized representative in writing via certified mail regarding the nature of the issue(s), the time allowed for correction, and other pertinent information. E. Maintenance of order. The Superintendent shall see that order is maintained at all times on the cemetery grounds, that all workmen are properly supervised, and that any persons who violate any of the rules and regulations of the chapter or any other rules or regulations of the city shall be expelled immediately from the cemetery premises. § 61 -6. — Administrator; appointment and removal. The City Manager shall appoint an Administrator of the municipal cemetery. The Administrator shall be subject to removal at any time by the City Manager. The City Manager may choose to act as the Administrator of the cemetery and not appoint a second individual. § 61 -7. - Powers and duties of Administrator. A. Cemetery records. The Administrator shall ensure the accuracy and integrity of the cemetery records and see that no plot therein is used or occupied in violation of this chapter or of any rule or regulation promulgated by the Commission. The Administrator is responsible for: 1. General: recording the purchasers of grave spaces, the subscribers of columbarium niches, the persons legally authorized by owners and subscribers to represent their interests, and the persons who have been assigned burial and inurnment rights by owners and subscribers. 2. Burial and Inurnment Plots: the maintenance of detailed records for the burial capacity of each plot, sold and unsold; the location of each grave; the names of the persons interred or inurned in each grave space; and the date of interment or inurnment. 3. Niches; the inurnment capacity of each niche, subscribed and unsubscribed; the location of each niche; the names of each person for whom a niche subscription has been designated; the names of the persons inurned in each niche; and the date of inurnment 3 B. Determination of burial and inurnment rights. The Administrator shall see that all burial and inurnment rights are properly identified in accordance with the rules and regulations adopted by the Commission. The Administrator is responsible for properly identifying owners of plots, designations of grave space usage, subscribers to columbarium niches, and legally authorized representatives and addressing other matters pertaining to the identification of persons with burial and inurnment rights and the grave spaces and /or niches to which those rights apply. C. Reporting. The Administrator has the responsibility to make reports and meet any other requirements of State law, this Code, and applicable rules and regulations governing the property and operation of the cemetery. § 61 -8. — Cemetery plots; ownership; title; records. A. The ownership interest in a cemetery plot is in fee simple and provides the right to use a plot designated in the cemetery deed for cemetery purposes only, together with the right and privilege of interment or inurnment of human remains; provided that such use shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Ocoee and any and all ordinances, resolutions, and regulations currently in effect and which may from time to time be adopted by the Commission with respect to cemetery plots. Title to a cemetery plot may be evidenced by a cemetery deed or by such other documents as may be acceptable to the Administrator. The grantee under such evidence shall be deemed to be the "plot owner," unless otherwise indicated by the records of the City. The title to a cemetery plot vests in the owner(s) the right to use said plot for burial purposes only for themselves, their heirs, or for any such person they may choose to designate; provided that, in the event that a person other than the plot owner is designated to be buried or inurned in the cemetery plot, the plot owner shall not receive any payment or other compensation in connection with the designation of the cemetery plot for the use of such other person. Designation of burial rights from a plot owner, in writing, must accompany all requests for permits to inter or inurn deceased persons who are not members of the immediate family of the plot owner, and such designation shall comply with all ordinances, resolutions, and regulations of the City and the State of Florida. B. An easement is granted by the City to plot owners to access their plot(s) via the common area owned by the City. An easement is granted to the City by the plot owner for the City to access the plot and to perform those services necessary for the management and operation of the cemetery. The City reserves the perpetual right of ingress and egress over all plots, and the City reserves the right to change, modify, or replat any part of the cemetery not sold for burial purposes or which has been subsequently abandoned by the private owner and ownership transferred to the City. The City has the right, but not the duty, to repair or maintain any plot and to increase the size of any plot already sold for burial purposes to conform with current lot size requirements so long as no charge to the owner is made for such increased size and the enlargement does not infringe on any burial plot owned by another private party. C. To the extent permitted by law, all plots are exempt from taxation and cannot be seized for debts, nor can they be mortgaged. D. Cemetery plots may not be sold or transferred to a third party but may be returned to the City for the original price paid. It is incumbent upon the owner of the plot to establish the price paid. If the price cannot be established by the owner, then the Administrator may establish a price for the purposes of returning the plot to the City based on historical research for sale prices of lots in the same area or time frame. E. Documentation of current ownership will be required for all transfers or for all designations and authorizations of interment, inurnment, and other burial rights. Such documentation is the responsibility of the owner(s) or such person who seeks to establish burial rights. The absence of appropriate documentation will prevent the sale, transfer, authorization, or recognition of interment/inurnment rights. The City will make no assumptions as to the intent of the original owner. 4 F. The use of any portion of an interment or inurnment space will preclude a subsequent return of a plot to the City. The term "use" includes interments, inurnments, and /or the installation of a memorial. G. The Commission shall cause the City Manager or his designated Administrator to keep full and complete records of the ownership of all plots in the cemetery as provided in section 61 -7A; t. However, the Commission recognizes that the cemetery was acquired after numerous plots had already been sold by previous owners of the facility and records at the time of acquisition were incomplete. H. Under the terms of § 497.286, Florida Statutes, as may be amended from time to time, owners of burial plots are required to furnish the City with their residential address. A plot owner shall be found to have abandoned ownership of all unused plots if the City is unable to contact the owner by mail for a period of five (5) or more years. Abandonment proceedings may be instituted by the City in the absence of timely notification of address by the plot owner to the City. The City shall retain the right, but not the obligation, to seek authority from a court of competent jurisdiction to quiet the title of any plot for which ownership is in question or for those plots deemed to have been abandoned under the provisions of § 497.286, Florida Statutes. I. Designation of use for each burial plot shall be made by the owner at the time of purchase for purchases made on or after September 30, 2012. Designations may be changed at a later date by filing the appropriate forms with the Cemetery Administrator. J. Ownership of a plot or other burial right by a private party does not impose an obligation on the part of the City to maintain any grave site. § 61 -9. — Columbarium niches; subscriptions; right of use; records. A. Columbarium niches are acquired by subscription for the perpetual storage of a designated person's cremated remains. A niche subscription in a columbarium does not confer any ownership rights to the columbarium or the niche that is the subject of the subscription; the City remains the owner of each columbarium and each niche contained therein. A niche subscription grants the subscriber the perpetual right to use said niche for inurnment purposes only for themselves, their heirs, or for any such person they may choose to designate; provided that, in the event that a person other than the subscriber is designated to be inurned in the niche, the subscriber shall not receive any payment or other compensation in connection with the designation of the niche for the use of such other person. Designation of inurnment rights from a subscriber, in writing, must accompany all requests for permits to inurn the cremated remains of a deceased person who is not a member of the immediate family of the subscriber, and such designation shall comply with all ordinances, resolutions, and regulations of the City and the State of Florida. B. An easement is granted by the City to subscribers to access their niche(s) via the common area owned by the City. C. To the extent permitted by law, all niche subscriptions are exempt from taxation and cannot be seized for debts, nor can they be mortgaged. D. Niche subscriptions may not be sold or transferred to a third party but may be cancelled and a portion of the subscription fee returned to the subscriber subject to the rules and regulations of the City. E. Documentation of the subscription will be required for all subscription cancellations inurnment designations, and authorizations of inurnment. Such documentation is the responsibility of the subscriber or such person who seeks to establish inurnment rights. The absence of appropriate documentation will prevent the cancellation, designation, authorization, or recognition of inurnment rights. The City will make no assumptions as to the intent of the original subscriber. 5 F. The Commission shall cause the City Manager and /or his designate Administrator to keep full and complete records of: subscribers to niches in the cemetery as provided in section 61 -7A. G. Under the terms of § 497.286, Florida Statutes, as may be amended from time to time, subscribers of inurnment niches are required to furnish the City with their residential address Correspondence mailed by the City to the subscriber at his or her last known address will be deemed received by the owner seven (7) days after the correspondence is sent. Should such a notice be returned due to the relocation of the subscriber or is otherwise undeliverable, the reservation shall be considered to be terminated after five (5) years during which the subscriber fails to timely provide a new mailing address to the Administrator. . Abandonment proceedings may be instituted by the City in the absence of timely notification of address by the subscriber to the City. No refund of any paid fees will be provided should a reservation be canceled in the manner herein described. H. Designation of use for each niche shall be made by the subscriber at the time subscription is made. Designations may be changed at a later date by filing the appropriate forms with the cemetery Administrator. § 61 -10. — Penalties for offenses. Any person violating any provision of this chapter and its implementing rules and regulation shall, upon conviction, be punishable as provided in § 1 -12 of Chapter 1, General Provisions, Article 11, of the Code of the City of Ocoee. Each day that such violation is committed or permitted to continue shall constitute a separate offense. § 61 -10. — City cemetery. The city cemetery is the facility located at 368 East Geneva Street, Orange County Parcel No. 20- 22 -28- 6141 -01 -000, consisting of 6.68 acres, more or less, which shall serve as the municipal cemetery of the City. Unless otherwise noted, all rules and regulations adopted by the Commission governing the operation and maintenance of cemeteries apply to the city cemetery. This cemetery is not a perpetual care facility. § 61 -12 — Exemptions and modifications. Special cases may arise in which the literal enforcement of any rule may impose unnecessary hardship. The City Commission, therefore, reserves the right, without notice, to make exceptions, suspensions, or modifications when, in its judgment, they appear advisable and temporary exceptions, suspensions, or modifications shall in no way be construed as affecting the general application of this chapter. SECTION 3. Conflicts. All resolutions, parts of resolution, or acts of the City Commission of the City of Ocoee in conflict herewith are hereby repealed and rescinded. SECTION 4. Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or portion of this Resolution is, for any reason, held invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed a separate, distinct, and 6 independent provision and such holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion hereto. SECTION 5. Effective Date. This Resolution shall become effective immediately upon passage and adoption. PASSED AND ADOPTED this l ?) day of `�;. c a\ A y , 2012. APPROVED: ATTEST: CITY OF OCOEE, FLORIDA / Be" City Clerk d S. Scott Vandergrift, Mayor (SEAL) FOR USE AND RELIANCE ONLY BY APPROVED BY THE OCOEE CITY THE CITY OF OCOEE, FLORIDA. COMMISSION AT A MEETING HELD APPROVED AS TO FORM AND ON p{f.mbCr 1 , 2012 LEGALITY THIS 1$ DAY OF UNDER AGENDA ITEM NO. j °l . Srri ,2012. SHUFFIELD & LOWMAN & WILSON, P.A. B 4 t City • - 441