Back in September, Black Wide-Awake remarked upon the curious coloring of the Bishop L.N. Forbes’ cemeteries on the City of Wilson’s 2043 Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map. Shortly after, Rest Haven, Hamilton, and Masonic Cemeteries were changed to blue, the “institutional use” designation that matches Maplewood. Vick Cemetery, strangely, remained the maize of medium-density residential. (Presumably, the color change was acknowledgement of an error, as I have not seen any notice of rezoning for the cemeteries.)
I recently noticed the map below in a bundle of documents attached to the 18 January 2024 city council agenda. The documents were assembled in support of the proposed conversion of the old Happy Valley golf course into 600+ houses and townhouses. (I have a lot to say about this folly, but it’s off-topic for BWA, so I’ll spare y’all.) This Future Land Use Map was pulled from the City of Wilson 2030 Comprehensive Plan and also shows Rest Haven, Vick, and Odd Fellows Cemeteries in maize. (Rountree Cemetery is appropriately blue.)
Then, on 2 March 2024, the Wilson Times published an article, “Planning board sets public hearing on 2043 Comprehensive Plan,” that includes this map:
It’s a little hard to see, so:
(1) is Maplewood Cemetery, designated red for “commercial.” So is (2), Rest Haven Cemetery. “Commercial” is odd, but (3) is absolutely chilling. “VACANT”? Vick Cemetery is a lot of things, but vacant is not one, as the 4,224+ bodies lying beneath its bland surface attest.
What in the magic kaleidoscope is going on here?
I did a little digging on the Wilson County GIS website. Rest Haven Cemetery’s Main Improvement Description is “Business-Mortuaries/Funeral Home.” Maplewood Cemetery’s Main Improvement Description is, oddly, “Business-Office Building.” (On a hunch, I checked Evergreen Memorial Gardens’, too. It’s the same as Maplewood.) Masonic, Hamilton, Rountree, Odd Fellows, and Vick Cemeteries’ Main Improvement Description is “Vacant.”
Maybe there’s no meaningful distinction among these differing descriptions for parcels of land dedicated to the burial of the dead, but I don’t see how any good can come of describing cemeteries as vacant, and, in my 2020 voice, stay woke.
Public hearing on the final draft of the 2043 plan is 6:00 PM, Tuesday, March 5. Y’all go down there and ask some hard questions.
Polls are open til 7:30 pm that day .. great timing ..! We asked all these questions during the preliminary presentation of this. And were told they would have all these discrepancies cleared up before the “next” phase of maps were released.
That was my recollection as well. And, wow, the conflict with election day is a terrible bit of planning.
Briggs Sherwood attended last night. He was unable to post his comment, so I do so: “Just back from the City of Wilson Planning & Design Review Board (not Council) meeting in which public comments were invited and given on the Wilson NC 2043 Future Use Planning Document. Cas Hooks, Lisa Benoy Gamble and myself each voiced the concerns that you point out here including the zoning and future land use discrepancies as currently mapped in this plan. The plan developer and the City’s advocate/director for the process responded at length to our concerns as did Board member Bobby Ray Tyson who pleaded for a strong resolution on the matter possibly affecting the substance of the Planning Document at hand. This Board as well as City staff and the Plan developer were sympathetic to these concerns. City Staff and Developer pointed out that the issue of scale in mapping as well as zoning provisions and state laws already in place that protect these spaces from future development were reasons that the two privately owned LSP cemeteries were not aligned w/ larger cemetery parcels on the maps. In the end (if I’m not mistaken) the Plan Developer offered to more specifically delineate all cemeteries on the maps. They also expressed (again if I’m not mistaken) their view that if any further protection of cemetery properties through zoning or other means was still a concern for residents .. that this ought to be addressed as a separate issue by City Council. The 2043 Plan is scheduled to come before Council for approval in April.”