Finding a final resting spot can be a meticulously detailed planning process, and the city is looking to incorporate as many ideas as it can into plans for a revamped Grey Mountain Cemetery.

At a noon council meeting Wednesday, council heard from parks supervisor Doug Hnatiuk and consultants from Inukshuk Planning and Development Ltd. as they presented final draft plans for the cemetery.

Consultant Deborah Pitt said the final product combines elements of two concepts that were presented to the public last year.

The finished cemetery expansion will see a pet cemetery, woodland areas, cultural burial zones and neo-traditional burial areas that will cater to not-quite-alternative but not-quite-traditional burials, explained Pitt.

The cemetery will also have a sheltered gathering area, and a garden in which mourners can spread ashes. The ability to have one shared headstone over two plots and large monuments that adhere to certain guidelines will also be permitted.

This caused some grief for Coun. Doug Graham.

"They'll sink, tilt, and then how much does it cost to have staff fix them?" he asked.

Pitt explained that before a family could have a monument erected, its design would have to meet engineering guidelines before approval.

"The first five years, there's a lot of work fixing them; I used to work there!" said Graham.

He was concerned that as time passes and monuments fall or crack, there may not be family members around to shoulder repair costs, as Hnatiuk suggested would be the case.

Mayor Bev Buckway interjected that the interment fees and costs of erecting a monument would be "off-putting" to many residents, and part of interment costs could cover some of the costs of operations staff fixing the monuments.

"I don't think you're going to find too many grandiose monuments," said Coun. Florence Roberts. She said residents are more concerned with being permitted to use bronzed objects and the like as grave markers.

"I've heard of one request for an antique plane propeller," she said.

Currently, large monuments are not allowed as grave markers in Grey Mountain Cemetery.

To protect the integrity of future monuments and current headstones, Pitt proposed that a fence be erected along the cemetery's perimeter, with two controlled access points.

"That's to prevent motorized traffic from encroaching," she said. There are two popular trails that run in and alongside the cemetery that are often used by hikers, mountain bikers and motorbike riders.

"We have heard that people here are quite attached to their trails," she said.

Rather than eliminating the current paths, one would be left as is outside the cemetery along the powerline right-of-way, and the other would be re-routed to another part of the cemetery.

Pitt said the idea with the fencing was to keep motorbikers out, but still allow for trail use to continue by others.

"There would be holes or stiles in the fence that people can get through," she said.

That way, people could continue to gain access but motorbikes could not get through the access points.

The current path would be covered over with plants and grass, said Pitt, to make way for the sheltered gathering area, an operations building and traditional burial grounds.

The master plan draft leaves room for first nation burial sites, though Pitt said that is contingent upon feedback from first nations. Kwanlin

Dun is amidst feasibility studies for its own cemetery on Kwanlin Dun land.

The pet cemetery would be fenced in as well, and will operate on a plot-by-plot sale basis, same as with the human cemetery.

Pitt said the plans she presented should meet the city's burial needs for more than 20 years. The plans are still not finalized, however, pending the completion of geotechnical work on the site to determine the ground is suitable for burials.

The cemetery's expansion has been in the works for two years, with the first phases of construction set to begin this summer, with new plots for sale next year.

Hnatiuk identified the rising popularity of pre-purchasing plots, accounting for the pressing demand now for a larger burial centre in Whitehorse.

The draft plan sees construction occurring in four phases, yielding approximately 5,240 new individual interment sites over 11 new hectares of land.

Hnatiuk said a final report based upon councillors' comments would be presented at a standing committee meeting in the near future.