DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE
TESTIMONIES

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE:
A tremendous amount of land in the southwestern section of the Heart of the City is cemetery land. Forest Hills, St. Michaels, Mt. Hope, New Calvary, and St. Marys Cemeteries comprise 540.25 acres of land that cannot be rezoned or redeveloped, and that is not part of the taxable land base.

In some instances, cemeteries in the Heart of the City insulate a neighborhood, provide it with a leafy border, and offer an opportunity for recreation and relaxation. The Forest Hills Cemetery provides all of these services to the neighborhoods of Weld Hill and Yale Terrace in Jamaica Plain. A section of St. Michael Cemetery that opened in 2001 includes a new building that is available for community meetings. In other situations, large expanses of land that are not actively being used attract dumping and other abuse. For example, the residents of Paine Street along the western edge of Mt. Hope Cemetery have suffered from frequent dumping in their neighborhood.

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TESTIMONIES:
"In my neighborhood, we are surrounded by cemeteries" (Lorraine Bough, director of the Lena Park Community Development Corporation in Dorchester/ Mattapan).

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