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Aurora Wants To Prevent Home Burials

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - This week the Aurora City Council will take up the issue of home burials. The city wants to make sure no one can bury human remains in back yards.

The city council was taking a look at expanding golf courses and there were concerns about finding bodies. It's an issue that's come up at Cheesman Park in Denver. A cemetery was there before the park and bodies are uncovered all the time.

Sunny Banka is a realtor in Aurora. She says the flap over backyard burials is one of the strangest she's seen.

"I've been a realtor for 33 years ... haven't run across a lot of people burying grandma in the back yard," Banka said.

A law passed last year allows a person to be buried on their own land. Green burials could actually be good for soil, but try selling a potential buyer on that.

"If it was 200 years ago that wouldn't bother me at all, but if it was a year ago, that probably would bother me," an Aurora resident said.

It's not likely an issue in tight-packed neighborhoods. Some might worry that final resting place might bring down the value of a home, but a buyer could see that land as hot property, depending on the name on the tombstone.

Aurora City Council members say the burial ban will go to a subcommittee before the determine how it should move forward.

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