Anchorage Assembly to vote on free land for natural burial cemetery

The Anchorage Assembly will vote May 26 on giving 9.6 acres of public land to a nonprofit to build a natural burial cemetery in South Anchorage.

The ordinance authorizes transferring the parcel on Golden View Drive to Alaska Natural Burial for zero dollars. The land sits across from Moen Park and next to Potter Marsh Watershed Park. The municipality appraised it at $583,000.

Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery, established in 1915, has about 10 years of capacity left. Voters rejected a $4.1 million bond in April 2024 that would have funded new municipal cemeteries in Eagle River and Girdwood.

Staff recommend the free transfer, citing savings from avoiding municipal cemetery construction costs that would otherwise fall to taxpayers.

What the nonprofit must do

Alaska Natural Burial must prove 105 percent funding for phase one and set aside 10 percent of plot sales into an endowment before the transfer happens. The nonprofit must also submit a master plan showing how it will meet Green Burial Council standards.

The deed includes strict reversionary clauses. If the nonprofit does not get a Change of Use Permit and plat the property into cemetery tracts within five years, the land returns to the municipality.

After the transfer, Alaska Natural Burial plans to follow Green Burial Council standards, which include conducting an ecological impact assessment and conserving natural habitat. The nonprofit will work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to create guidelines for avoiding human-wildlife conflict.

The project restricts large monuments to preserve viewsheds and wildlife corridors between Potter Marsh and the Chugach Mountains. A 25-foot trail easement for Moen Trail runs through the property. Parks and Recreation will continue maintaining the trail.

Deed restrictions limit the property to recreation and natural burial use only. The municipality retains first right of refusal if the nonprofit ever sells or transfers the land.

The Heritage Land Bank Advisory Commission unanimously approved the disposal in April. The Assembly held a worksession on the ordinance June 5.