Site chosen for Rotorua's new cemetery

Rotorua's council is on the verge of buying a new cemetery site which could cater for the district for the next 150 years.
The 13ha site, on State Highway 5, has only two neighbours - a golf course and a farm.
The search for a new cemetery site for Rotorua has taken almost a decade with sites in Tihiotonga, Kaharoa and Horohoro also being investigated.
In 2007 the council bought a piece of land in Horohoro which it hoped to use as a cemetery but residents in the rural area opposed the plan. Now a new site, closer to town with agreeable neighbours, has been found.
Rotorua District Council Parks and Recreation manager Garry Page said the 13ha site, on State Highway 5 between the Lake View Golf Course and a farm, came up for mortgagee sale recently as it was going to be used as part of a major golf resort development that never went ahead. "The soil conditions are excellent and the size would cover us for about 150 years ... but we won't be looking to commence work out there for another four or five years. No major earthworks would be needed, there's already a series of flat sites there we can use," Mr Page said.
At $795,000, he said ratepayers had got a bargain.
"Once we have secured the site we will sell the Horohoro site, we are looking to do quite well out of that sale as the land has gained in value since we bought it."
He said the sale of the Horohoro site would cover the purchase of the new site and its development.
"This is a much better situation for everyone," he said.
The council's parks and recreation department is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Rotorua Cemetery and Crematorium and the Kauae, Reporoa, Ngakuru and Mamaku cemeteries. The majority of current burials in Rotorua are increasingly taken place at Kauae Cemetery since the Rotorua Cemetery reached capacity about 10 years ago.
Kauae Cemetery was expected to reach maximum capacity by 2015/16.
Early in 2007, the council bought the 41ha site below the Horohoro Bluffs in Apirana Rd, about 17km from the city.
The move angered locals who said they were not consulted about the purchase.
Mr Page said the new location was closer to town than the Horohoro site and would cost less to ratepayers in resource consent fees and environment court costs than if the council had gone ahead with developing Horohoro.
Mr Page said he had spoken with the land's neighbours, the Lake View Golf Course and a private landowner/farmer, saying both parties did not see a problem with it and he did not expect much opposition against the site being used as a cemetery.
Mr Page stressed that the council did not yet have title on the property but that was expected in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, increases in cremation and burial fees in Rotorua were initially approved at a meeting of the Rotorua District Council yesterday and were included in the council's draft annual plan for 2011/12. The fees for a burial plot will double, rising from $785 to $1574, while burial fees are set to rise by more than $70 and cremation fees by more than $100.
Rotorua's fees would now be in line with, and in most cases cheaper than, the rest of the Bay of Plenty and Hamilton.