Land owners must also grant access to the cemetery for relatives wishing to visit the deceased. To disturb the graves could mean big fines or even jail time unless landowners get court approval to move the cemetery. That's not the usual scenario in Williamson County, Allen said. Most developers often build around cemeteries as well as keep them trimmed and neat, even though they don't have to. Their intent is not to come in and bulldoze them down.
Nobody aims to build on cemeteries.
Allen cites several instances of developers going the extra mile to landscape the old cemeteries amid new growth. Wyndchase apartment complex in Franklin is one such example, Allen said. Developers there built around the cemetery, which is on a hill near the center of the complex. Developers have also tiptoed around old family plots at Fieldstone Farms, one of the largest subdivisions in Franklin. In Brentwood, planners built Murray Lane around a fenced-in slave cemetery, leaving the graveyard on an elevated median.