CHAPTER 161

An Act to amend and reenact § 57-26, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, relating to restrictions upon location of cemeteries, quantity
of land which may be held, damages and exceptions.

[H 280]

Approved March 38, 1960

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 57-26, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 57-26. (1) Restrictions as to location.—No cemetery shall be here-
after established within a county or the corporate limits of any city or
town, unless authorized by appropriate ordinance subject to any zoning
ordinance duly adopted by the governing body of such county, city or
town; provided that authorization by county ordinance shall not be re-
quired for interment of the dead in any churchyard or for interment of
members of a family on private property; nor shall any cemetery be estab-
hshed within two hundred fifty yards of any residence without the consent
of the owner of the legal and equitable title of the residence; provided that
subject to the foregoing if the location for the proposed cemetery is sepa-
rated from any residence by a State highway, it may be established upon
such location without the consent of the owner of such residence if it be
not less than two hundred fifty feet from the residence at its nearest point
thereto; provided such prohibition and restriction shall not apply where
the tract of land intended for use as a cemetery is separated from any resi-
dence by a State highway and now contains a public or private burial
ground and is not within the corporate limits of any city or town; and no
cemetery shall be hereafter established, and no burial made in any part of
any cemetery, other than a municipal or city cemetery, located within
three hundred yards of any property owned by any city, town or water
company, upon which or a portion of which are now located driven wells
from which water is pumped or drawn from the ground in connection with
the public water supply.

(2) Quantity of land——Nothing contained in §§ 57-22 to 57-25 shall
be so construed as to authorize a conveyance of more than three hundred
acres or the condemnation of more than two acres of land for the use of
a cemetery.

(83) Action for damages.—When damage is done to adjacent land by
the establishment of such cemetery, whether established by purchase or
condemnation, the owners whose lands have been damaged shall have a
right to action for such damage against any person, firm, corporation, or
municipality, establishing the cemetery; provided such action be instituted
within one year from such establishment.

(4) Exceptions.—The prohibitions and restrictions as to the location
or establishment of cemeteries shall not apply to the town of Stuart, in
Patrick County, to the town of Gretna, in Pittsylvania County, to the
town of Shenandoah in Page County, or to the Woodbine Cemetery in the
city of Harrisonburg, Rockingham County. And if the location for the
proposed cemetery be in Norfolk County it may be established on such
location if consent thereto be given by the owners of every residence
within two hundred fifty feet thereof at its nearest point to any such
residence, or if the location for the proposed cemetery is separated from
any such residence by a State highway it may be established upon such
location without the consent of the owner of such residence if it be not
oe than one hundred fifty feet from the residence at its nearest point

ereto.
2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.