Town seeks OK to add 1,588 plots at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

It’s time for Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to grow, town officials say. 

Voters could approve a budget to expand it under Article 11 at this month’s Town Meeting. 

The $850,000 project, which would fund construction of 1,588 new burial lots in the cemetery’s Knoll section, is part of a nearly $4.7 million Fiscal Year 2027 Capital Improvement and Debt Plan. 

The town has been planning an expansion “to meet the growing demand for new grave sites,” Town Manager Kerry Lafleur said at a March 5 Finance Committee hearing. 

She said the project has been in development for about two years and is now ready to move into construction. “A full scope of work that included a conceptual design, surveying, wetlands flagging, and final design has been in process,” she said.

If approved, the expansion would move forward in fiscal 2027. If rejected, Lafleur told The Acton Bridge Monday night, “then we’re very limited in what we have for sale of lots.”

Funding the project

The town would cover the $850,000 cost with extra money from its overlay account, Lafleur told The Bridge. This means it wouldn’t take on new debt. 

Sleepy Hollow is Acton’s largest cemetery. In a statement to the Finance Committee, Cemetery Committee member Rebecca Noke said existing sections are effectively full and that lot sales are currently restricted.

“The Cemetery Committee voted to limit lot sales to at-need residents only,” Highway and Grounds Superintendent Aaron Miklosko told The Bridge. “That means someone who needs a grave for an upcoming funeral can purchase a lot, but advance planning purchases are not currently approved.”

The project would use land within the cemetery that the town already owns. 

“We have land available for expansion but development is required,” Noke said, which means “constructing roads, drainage systems, water lines, pathways and laying out grave sites.”

Kevin Thomas Plodzik, president of The Friends of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, deferred Bridge questions to Acton Public Works.

A Sleepy Hollow timeline

1855: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery opens to meet the growing need for burial space as the town’s older burial grounds near capacity.

1869: Land between Sleepy Hollow and New Hill Burying Ground is purchased; the “New Hill” section is incorporated into the cemetery.

1933: The Chestnut Hollow area is acquired.

Late 1950s: Cemetery Committee purchases additional land in anticipation of future needs.

1998: The newly developed section from the late-1950s purchase opens, addressing capacity limitations.

2018: New master plan calls for development of available land to meet future demand.

‘Moving forward steadily’

Sleepy Hollow has expanded multiple times since opening in 1855, in each case as older sections filled. The most recent expansion was in 1998. 

A 2018 cemetery master plan approved by the Cemetery Committee identified the need to continue developing available land within Sleepy Hollow to meet future demand, noting that additional infrastructure would be required to convert undeveloped areas into usable burial space.

“The Cemetery Committee identifies priority projects over the years, and this is one of those,” Miklosko said. 

The Capital Improvement and Debt Plan is a common spending package at Town Meeting. The cemetery expansion represents one of the larger individual expenditures within this year’s request.

Town Meeting starts April 27.