§ 5302. Definitions
As used in this chapter and unless otherwise required by the context:
(1) “Agencies” means town cemeteries; religious or ecclesiastical society cemeteries;
cemetery associations; and any person, firm, corporation, or unincorporated association
engaged in the business of a cemetery.
(2) “Cemetery” means any plot of ground used or intended to be used for the burial or
permanent disposition of the remains of the human dead in a grave, a mausoleum, a
columbarium, a vault, or other receptacle.
(3) “Cemetery association” means any corporation now or hereafter organized that is or
shall be authorized by its articles to conduct the business of a cemetery.
(4) “Columbarium” means a structure or room or other space in a building or structure
of durable and lasting fireproof construction, containing niches, used or intended
to be used, to contain the permanent disposition of human remains.
(5) “Community mausoleum” means a structure or building of durable and lasting construction
used or intended to be used for the permanent disposition of the remains of deceased
persons in crypts or spaces, provided such crypts or spaces are available to or may
be obtained by individuals or the public for a price in money or its equivalent.
(6) “Cremated remains” means remains of a deceased person after incineration in a disposition
facility.
(7) “Cremation” means the reducing of the remains of deceased persons, by the use of retorts,
to cremated remains and the disposal thereof in a columbarium, niche, mausoleum, grave,
or in any other manner not contrary to law.
(8) “Crypt” means the chamber in a mausoleum of sufficient size to contain the remains
of deceased persons.
(9) “Disposition facility” means a building or structure for the reducing of human remains
by means of cremation, alkaline hydrolysis, or natural organic reduction.
(10) “Ecological land management practices” means utilization of land stewardship decision-making
processes that account for the best available understanding of ecosystem functions
and biological diversity.
(11) “Natural burial ground” means a cemetery maintained using ecological land management
practices and without the use of vaults for the burial of unembalmed human remains
or human remains embalmed using nontoxic embalming fluids and that rest in either
no burial container or in a nontoxic, nonhazardous, plant-derived burial container
or shroud.
(12) “Natural organic reduction” means the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains
to soil.
(13) “Niche” means a recess in a columbarium used, or intended to be used, for the permanent
disposition of human remains of one or more deceased persons.
(14) “Temporary receiving vault” means a vault or crypt in a structure of durable and lasting
construction used, or intended to be used, for the temporary deposit of the remains
of a deceased person for a period of time not exceeding one year. (Amended 2015, No. 24, § 1; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 94; 2021, No. 169 (Adj. Sess.), § 8, eff. January 1, 2023.)