TITLE 23
Health and Safety
CHAPTER 23-18
Cemeteries
SECTION 23-18-11
§ 23-18-11 Regulation of excavation around
cemeteries.
(a) The city or town council of any municipality may by ordinance prescribe
standards regulating any construction or excavation in the city or town, when
those standards are reasonably necessary to prevent deterioration of or damage
to any cemetery or burial ground, or to any structures or gravesites located in
any cemetery or burial ground. The rules and regulations shall not apply to the
ordinary installation of gravesites or of monuments, markers, or mausoleums.
(b) No city or town shall permit construction, excavation or
other ground disturbing activity within twenty-five feet (25') of a recorded
historic cemetery except in compliance with the following provisions:
(1) The boundaries of the cemetery are adequately documented
and there is no reason to believe additional graves exist outside the recorded
cemetery and the proposed construction or excavation activity will not damage
or destructively alter the historic cemetery through erosion, flooding,
filling, or encroachment; or
(2) The proposed construction or excavation activity has been
reviewed and approved by the city or town in accordance with § 23-18-11.1.
(c) Whenever an unmarked cemetery or human skeletal material
is inadvertently located during any construction, excavation, or other ground
disturbing activity, including archaeological excavation, the building official
of the city or town where the unmarked cemetery or human skeletal material is
located shall be immediately notified. The building official shall, in turn,
notify the state medical examiner and the Rhode Island historical preservation
and heritage commission if the grave, cemetery, or skeletal material appears to
be historic. Prior to the continuation of any further construction, excavation,
or other ground disturbing activity, and unless the provisions of §
23-18-7 shall apply, the property owner shall undertake an archaeological
investigation to determine the boundaries of the unmarked cemetery and shall so
inform the building official. In the event that the cemetery meets the criteria
for a historic cemetery, the building official shall so advise the recorder of
deeds of the city or town who shall record and register the cemetery in
accordance with the provisions of § 23-18-10.1.
History of Section.
(P.L. 1980, ch. 31, § 1; P.L. 1992, ch. 478, § 1.)