Sitka weighs rezoning seven historic cemetery properties to allow only cemetery uses

The Sitka Assembly will take a first look Tuesday at rezoning seven historic cemetery properties so the land can be used only for cemetery purposes. Their current zoning allows for the possibility of redevelopment that, "in a worst-case scenario, could disturb those interred," city planners wrote.

The properties hold the Russian Orthodox and Lutheran cemeteries, which are zoned for single-family homes and duplexes, and the Old City, Pioneer, Moose, Sitka National and Sitka Memorial Park cemeteries, which are zoned as public lands. The ordinance would move all of them into the cemetery district the city created in 2019, which allows only uses "intended to be cemetery-related and conducted with reverence and respect for those interred," according to a planning memo.

Planners called disturbing graves unlikely given state and federal rules, but wrote in an October staff report that "similar disinterment has occurred within the city and borough in the near-distant past." The report doesn't say where.

Local stakeholders and tribal citizens identified protecting the remains of Sitka's Indigenous residents as "of particular interest," the memo says. It calls the rezoning a gesture of respect toward everyone buried in the cemeteries, of "particular resonance" for "those who have been, at times, historically disinterred without regard."

Only one cemetery has been moved into the district since 2019, and no other owners asked to be, the memo says. In June 2025, the planning office contacted cemetery owners to ask whether they'd support rezoning. Harvey Brandt, president of the Sitka Lutheran Church Council, wrote back that the church's cemetery was dedicated in 1840 by the Rev. Uno Cygnaeus of the Finnish Lutheran Church and "requires special protection from private interests that do not show proper respect for those interred in the cemetery."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs Sitka National Cemetery, told the city that "local zoning or re-zoning categories and restrictions do not apply to us." The state Department of Natural Resources, which manages the state land under the Old City Cemetery, wrote that it didn't object but "will maintain the ability to authorize other land use if determined to be in the best interest of the State."

The ordinance includes only properties whose owners supported it or didn't object. The Orthodox Diocese of Sitka & Alaska agreed to rezoning its cemetery on Marine Street but asked the city to leave out a second property where its parsonage sits, which the diocese wrote "is also projected for possible future development." The Alaska Native Brotherhood, which also owns a cemetery property, hadn't responded, a city planner told the Planning Commission in October, though the group was possibly back in touch.

The Historic Preservation Commission recommended the rezoning 6-0 on Oct. 14, and the Planning Commission recommended it 4-0 on Oct. 21 with no public comment, according to its minutes. The planning office has resources for other owners of land with known burial sites who want the same protection, planner Ariadne Will told commissioners.

The Assembly's final vote is scheduled for Nov. 24. The city says the change costs it nothing.