Sponsored by:
Senator RAJ MUKHERJI
District 32 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
Allows for operation of crematories at locations not situated on cemetery grounds or funeral home properties; provides for issuance of permits for certain crematories.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the location of crematories, amending P.L.2011, c.230 and P.L.2013, c.194, and amending and supplementing P.L.2003, c.261.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 2 of P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-2) is amended to read as follows:
2. "Annual, endowed or special care" means care or maintenance of an individual interment space provided for by agreement between the cemetery and the owner of the space.
"Board" means the New Jersey Cemetery and Crematory Board.
"Burial" means disposition of human remains by placing them in a grave or crypt, but does not include their temporary storage.
"Burial right" means a right for the burial of human remains in a particular grave or crypt created by contract between a person and a cemetery.
"Cemetery" means any land or place used or dedicated for use for burial of human remains, cremation of human remains, or disposition of cremated human remains.
"Cemetery company" means a person that owns, manages, operates or controls a cemetery, directly or indirectly, but does not include a religious organization that owns a cemetery which restricts burials to members of that religion or their families unless the organization has obtained a certificate of authority for the cemetery.
"Columbarium" means a building or structure containing niches for placement of cremated human remains.
"Cremated human remains" means the recoverable bone fragments and container residue resulting from the process of cremation.
"Cremation" means the process of reducing human remains to bone fragments through flame, heat and vaporization.
Cremation company means a person that owns, manages, operates or controls a crematory, directly or indirectly, that is a stand-alone facility located on property owned or leased by the cremation company and that is separate and apart from a cemetery and funeral home.
"Crematory" means a structure containing cremation chambers used to cremate human remains.
"Crypt" means an interment space in a mausoleum or other structure, above or below ground.
"Embellishment" means an item contributing to beauty, comfort or enhancement of a cemetery, but does not include a memorial or a disposable, perishable or seasonal item.
"General maintenance charge" means a fee assessed against each interment space for the general upkeep of the cemetery.
"Grave" means a place for underground disposition of human remains or cremated human remains. A grave may include spaces for the disposition of human remains of more than one person, arranged by depth.
"Human remains" means a body, or part of a body, of a deceased human being.
"Interment" means the disposition of human remains by burial in a grave or crypt but does not mean the temporary storage of remains.
"Interment space" means a grave or crypt intended for the interment of human remains.
"Maintenance" means all activities of a cemetery company which further the care and upkeep of a cemetery, including cutting lawns, and preservation and repair of drains, water lines, roads, buildings, fences and other structures.
"Maintenance and preservation" means the care of the entire cemetery to the extent of the income of the Maintenance and Preservation Fund; it does not include providing specific care to individual graves or plots.
"Mausoleum" means a permanent building in a cemetery above or below ground, containing crypts to be used for burial.
"Memorial" means a marker or monument located at a grave containing the name of a deceased person or the family name of a deceased person, or an effigy or other representation of a deceased person buried in the grave. It does not include an embellishment.
"Niche" means a space in a columbarium or mausoleum for placement of cremated human remains.
"Path" means a course or way intended to provide pedestrian access to interment spaces.
"Person" includes an individual, corporation, partnership, association or any other public or private entity.
"Plot" or "lot" means an area of cemetery ground containing two or more adjoining graves.
"Private mausoleum" means a mausoleum constructed by or for a plot owner and not owned by the cemetery.
"Public mausoleum" means a mausoleum, built in accordance with regulations of the Department of Community Affairs, owned by a cemetery or cemetery company with the intention of use of interment spaces in it by the general public. A mausoleum is distinguished from a single or multiple vault in that it is a single integrated structure assembled on the premises. It shall not consist of one or more vaults constructed off the cemetery premises and installed singly or in series at the cemetery premises.
"Roadway" means a course or way intended to provide vehicle access to interment spaces.
"Vault" means a prefabricated outer burial case of any material, designed to be installed in the ground to receive one or more burials, and not a part of a public or private mausoleum or any other structure.
(cf: P.L.2011, c.230, s.1)
2. Section 4 of P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-4) is amended to read as follows:
4. a. The board shall administer the provisions of [this act] P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-1 et seq.) and shall have general supervision and regulation of, and jurisdiction and control over, all cemetery companies and their property, all crematory companies, property rights, equipment and facilities so far as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of [this act] P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-1 et seq.).
b. The board shall adopt regulations to carry out the purposes of [this act] P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-1 et seq.). Regulations shall be adopted in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.). [This act] P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-1 et seq.) and the regulations shall be enforced in accordance with P.L.1978, c.73 (C.45:1-14 et seq.) and the "Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.).
c. The board may adjust charges and fees as provided by section 2 of P.L.1974, c.46 (C.45:1-3.2) to defray the proper expenses of administration of [this act] P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-1 et seq.).
d. Nothing in [this act] P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-1 et seq.) shall affect any of the powers regarding cemeteries heretofore exercised by the Attorney General.
e. Nothing in [this act] P.L.2003, c.261 (C.45:27-1 et seq.) shall authorize the board to establish the prices at which graves or crypts may be sold or the charges made for services rendered by cemetery companies or the charges made for services rendered by crematory companies.
f. The board may institute an action in the Superior Court for injunctive or other relief or for appoi