Who may be buried in the cemeteries owned by the Township #2 Public Cemetery District? Public Cemetery Districts in California are governed primarily by the California Health and Safety Code. Division 8, Part 4, Chapter 5 of that code answers the question of who has a right to be interred in one of its cemeteries. A summary of the applicable portions of the code follows:
1. Anyone who is a resident of the district.
2. Anyone who pays property taxes in the district.
3. Eligible non-residents of the district. To be eligible, a non-resident must meet at least one of the requirements listed below (a, b, c or d):
a. The person is a family member of a person already interred, or who has already acquired interment rights, in one of the Township #2 cemeteries.
b. The person was a resident of Township #2 District or paid property taxes in the district for a continuous period of at least five years, a portion of which occurred in the ten years immediately before the person’s death, AND the district receives a written request for the interment of the person from a person who is a resident of the district or who pays property taxes in the district (the person submitting the request may not be a member of the district board, an employee of the district, a funeral director or an employee of a funeral director), AND the district board determines the cemetery has adequate space.
c. The person was a resident of California at the time of death, AND there is no private cemetery within a 15-mile radius of the person’s last place of residence, AND there is no private cemetery nearer to the person’s last place of residence that the nearest cemetery owned by the district.
d. The person died while serving in the U.S. armed forces or active militia, OR in the line of duty as a peace officer or firefighter, AND the cemetery district board determines there is adequate space.
4. Family members of anyone meeting the requirements listed above.
A non-resident fee shall be charged for interments of all eligible non-residents.