Council plans for future cemetery space in Kāpiti

Kāpiti Coast District Council is starting to plan for future cemetery space as the district grows and more people choose to be buried here.

Council’s parks, open space and environment manager Gareth Eloff said some of the district’s cemeteries could start running out of room as early as 2035.

“We’re starting to look at options for future burials, including a new cemetery.

“Our figures estimate that the best-case scenario is that the district overall has about 44 years of body interments, 21 years of ash interments and eight years of green burial capacity remaining under current demand,” he said.

Waikanae Cemetery was under the most pressure with space for ash interments due to be reached in 2026 and in-ground interments by 2030, he said.

“At the moment, just over half our residents are choosing to be buried outside the district. If we start to see a similar interment rate to other districts, it will put significantly more pressure on local cemetery space.”

Mr Eloff said Council was considering a range of options.

“We’ll still need to investigate acquiring new land for a potential district-wide cemetery to meet projected demand in the medium to long term,” he said.

“All this is contingent not just on land becoming available, but it being suitable for the specific needs of burials.”

This included finding land that was resilient to earthquakes and flooding and met the cultural values of the community, Mr Eloff said.

Burials are available at Ōtaki, Waikanae and Awa Tapu Cemeteries. At Paraparaumu Beach Cemetery only second interments in existing family plots are available. Natural or ‘green’ burial is only available at Ōtaki cemetery.

Council has recently implemented its new digital solution for managing its cemetery, burials and cremation data, which includes changes to the booking system. This will vastly improve information on available plots and historic records and is expected to become fully operational later this year.

“Styles of recordkeeping have altered over the years. We've attempted to make sure records are as accurate as possible, so people have access to good information about their loved ones and ancestors,” Mr Eloff said.