Applicant Pamela Hervey asks to create private family cemetery; commissioners ask for smaller plat after petition

Pamela Hervey, the applicant, asked the Rankin County Planning Commission to allow a private family cemetery on a portion of her 20-acre property at 475 McLean Circle, saying she wanted two acres designated so family members who do not attend a Jackson church could be buried closer to home.

The board attorney opened the public hearing and said the plat Hervey submitted appeared to allow as many as "as many as 300 gravesites on this property," and reminded commissioners that the county applies state law in these cases. "This is a state law," the board attorney said, citing "Section 40 one-forty three-one of the Mississippi Code," and described the county's expectation that private family cemeteries be limited in scale and documented with a survey and legal description for land records.

Hervey told the board she was seeking the two acres in part to be near a 94–95‑year‑old relative and described long-term family use: "We are a big family," she said, adding that she and her sisters would maintain a fund to keep the gravesites. She said they would not charge others to bury there. Several commissioners pressed for smaller limits; one suggested initially approving about 50 plots and requiring the owners to return for expansion. Staff and commissioners noted they had received a formal petition in opposition and reported a rough count of 195 signatures submitted as part of the hearing record.

Board members discussed the purpose of state law and the distinction between a limited, family-only cemetery and a commercial cemetery that would require a perpetual maintenance trust. The board attorney recommended asking the surveyor to rework the plat to show a much smaller footprint—"something like a quarter acre, maybe a half acre"—or a layout with 25 to 50 potential sites and clear buffers so the county could clearly record the limits and prevent the site from functioning as a commercial cemetery.

No final permit decision was made. The board closed the hearing for today and instructed staff to work with Hervey to prepare a revised plat and the required survey documents for a future meeting. The board said it would pay particular attention to proximity of objectors and to ensuring the land-records entry clearly described any approved private family cemetery.