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.