Green cemetery backers sue Ga. County

The operators of a proposed green cemetery have sued Bibb County, Ga., in federal court over regulations the county passed that effectively kill the project before it ever began.

Bibb County, Ga., green cemetery report: NACO

The National Association of Counties has a report on its Web site discussing the dispute over the green cemetery plan that has been stalled by the county commissioners.

Bibb County, Ga.: Beyond the headlines

I've done a little Web searching about the efforts to ban green cemeteries in Bibb County, Georgia, via the commissioners' ill-conceived and ill-advised amendments to their cemetery code. Here's a sampling of what I've found.
First, we have some eloquent comments from author Mark Harris, who helped turn me on to the subject of cemeteries when he was interviewed on NPR's "Fresh Air," and I was searching for a topic for my Land Use class.
In his letter to the commissioners, Harris references an endorsement of the Summerland Natural Cemetery from the Funeral Consumers Alliance's executive director, Joshua Slocum.
The Examiner.com also has a summary from it's Atlanta political blogger, Perry B. Goodfriend. Frankly, he raises a good point (whether he did it intentionally or otherwise might be open to debate that the Wall Street Journal article takes note that such a cemetery would be utilized by " 'old hippies,' penny pinchers, environmentalists and Muslims -- who traditionally bury the dead without caskets." I read right over that; or at least it didn't register to me how stinging - snarky?! - the comment is.
Here is a piece from April 2008 in which the county Zoning and Planning Commission gave its initial approval. Since this was OK'd before the county commissioners amended the cemetery code, this leads me to wonder whether Summerland is grandfathered in. Stay tuned.

Bibb County, Ga., debate goes on

Pay no attention to the headline of this article, because from what I can tell, the debate is still raging. Both sides of the debate about a green cemetery continue to spar, and now, there is talk of banning green burials in other counties, according to this article:

The Twiggs County Commission already is in the process of adopting changes
to its own cemetery ordinance that would prohibit green burials.
“If this was happening in Bibb, then the next logical thing was Twiggs would be a
prime place to try this effort again,” Twiggs County Commission Chairman Ray
Bennett said.