Winter Garden on Thursday voted unanimously to boost the fees for burial and interment at the city’s 100-year-old cemetery as part of Resolution 25-11.
The vote on the resolution immediately followed the commission’s unanimous passage of Ordinance 25-35 to allow changes to Chapter 26, Article II of the city’s municipal code dealing with cemetery matters. Under the ordinance, the commission approved additional changes, limiting interment rights to immediate family and adopting procedures in the event the same plot or columbarium niche in the tight-on-space cemetery is sold to separate individuals.
Effective immediately, the city’s $800 plots ($1,200 for nonresidents) will be $3,000 — a 275 percent price increase. Columbarium niches, which had been $600 for residents ($900 for nonresidents), will cost $2,000 — a 233 percent increase. Fees from these sales go into the city’s general fund…