The 145-year old Sacred Heart Catholic Church Cemetery needed to expand into the adjacent undeveloped land. The Church had purchased this land approximately twenty years ago in anticipation of growth. The adjacent property offers many opportunities for design with few limitations. The Cemetery Board needed a firm to assist them with the land development and visualizing a solution to address the trending rise of cremation as an alternative to the traditional casket burial.

The Cemetery Board contacted IMEG’s Landscape Architect to assist them. The land challenges consisted of an existing wetland, a levee, a dead-end street, a storm sewer easement, and two railroads that define the boundaries. The Master Plan process consisted of inventorying, researching the restrictions of the levee, and storm sewer easement.

IMEG and the Cemetery Board had a brain-storming session to determine the desires and priorities for the Cemetery. As a result, six different concept plans were presented to the Board. Different elements of the concept plans were selected and combined into a single Master Plan with executable construction phasing.