At a Commerce City Council meeting on Monday, councilors unanimously rejected a proposal to relocate human remains from a family cemetery to build an industrial park.
The application was submitted by Rooker Co, an Atlanta-based real estate development company.
Their plan was to develop a 500-plus acre park to provide 10 industrial warehouses on Bana Industrial Road — right next to Wheeler Cemetery Road.
“The Wilson-Wheeler-King cemetery is located on one of our sites, which we need to relocate since our plan is to build an industrial warehouse to recruit industry and jobs to Commerce,” Senior Vice President of Rooker Brian Cardoza wrote to the Commerce Zoning Administrator in November of 2024. “The benefit of this relocation is that family members can more easily access the cemetery, which we plan to to relocate on another RP Bana 85 LLC property within the park.”
RP Bana 85 LLC, a subsidiary of Rooker Co, already owns a parcel on 1649 Wheeler Cemetery Road. In the agenda packet leading up to the Monday meeting, Commerce Assistant City Manager Matthew Hailey wrote that a public hearing was held on July 21 of this year.
“Citizens who spoke in opposition referred to issues as not being able to access the current cemetery due to it being private property. Citizens did not want their deceased relatives moved/relocated. Citizens wanted the City to require the developer to provide access and maintain the current cemetery,” Hailey wrote.
Staff recommended that if the cemetery is left in place, heirs of the deceased have a right to enter to care for and maintain the burial plots. However, they can not enlarge the cemetery without permission from the landowner.
They also said that the city and the property owner do not have an obligation to maintain the cemeteries or burial grounds.
Studies provided to the council showed there are at least 185 graves present within the cemetery, with some confirmed death dates over 150-years-old.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/8/1298548/commerce-city-council-unanimously-denies-wheeler-cemetery-relocation