Part 2. Public Cemeteries of California Health And Safety Code >> Division 8. >> Part 2.

Incorporated cities, and for unincorporated towns the supervisors of the county, may survey, lay out, and dedicate for burial purposes not exceeding five acres of public lands situated in or near the city or town. The survey, description, and a certified copy of the order made constituting the land a cemetery shall be recorded in the recorder's office of the county in which it is located.

The City of Simi Valley may survey, lay out, dedicate, own, and operate for burial purposes, or may purchase, or receive by gift or donation, five acres or more of public lands to be used as a public cemetery.

The title to lands situated in or near any city and used by the inhabitants without interruption as a cemetery for five years is vested in the inhabitants of the city and the lands shall not be used except as a public cemetery.

The inhabitants of any city may by subscription or otherwise purchase or receive by gift or donation, lands not exceeding five acres to be used as a cemetery, the title to be vested in the inhabitants, which lands when once dedicated to use for burial purposes, shall not thereafter be used for any other purpose.

The governing body having control of a public cemetery shall require a register of name, age, birthplace, date of death, and burial of every body interred therein, to be kept by the sexton or other officer. The register shall be open to public inspection.

The public cemeteries of cities, towns, or neighborhoods or of fraternal or beneficial associations or societies shall be inclosed and laid off into plots.

The general management, conduct, and regulation of burials, the disposition of plots, and keeping the plots in order, are under the jurisdiction and control of the city owning the cemetery.

If not owned by a city or by a fraternal or beneficial association or society, public cemeteries are under the jurisdiction and control of the board of supervisors of the county in which they are situated.

Public cemeteries of fraternal or beneficial associations or societies are under the jurisdiction of and controlled and managed by the associations or societies or by trustees appointed by them.

The authorities having jurisdiction and control of cemeteries may make and enforce general rules and regulations, and appoint sextons or other officers to enforce obedience to the rules and regulations, with such powers and duties regarding the cemetery as may be necessary.

No streets, alleys, or roads shall be opened or laid out within the boundary lines of any cemetery located in whole or in part within the lines of any city or city and county where burials in the cemetery have been had within five years prior thereto, without the consent of the person owning and controlling the cemetery.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Department of Water Resources may sell plots in any cemetery which is owned by the department on a nonendowment care basis to a relative of the third degree or less of any person buried in such cemetery.

Any city, including a chartered city, that owns and operates a cemetery may maintain a proceeding in the superior court of the county in which the cemetery is located to have any plot in the cemetery declared abandoned if the present owner of the plot is unknown to the city and a period of at least 50 years has passed since any portion of the plot has been used for interment purposes. The proceeding shall be initiated and conducted in the same manner as prescribed by Section 9069, except that any reference in that section to a public cemetery district shall be deemed to be a reference to the city for purposes of this section.

A cemetery owned and operated by a city, county, or city and county shall not engage in the business of selling monuments or markers, and its officers and employees who manage, operate, or otherwise maintain such cemetery on a day-to-day basis shall not engage in the private business of selling monuments or markers.