According to the Bristol Herald Courier, residents along the Susong Cemetery are unhappy with plans to add burial plots within a few feet of their backyards.

Many of the residents claim that when they bought their home neighboring the cemetery they were told that the property next to their yards would not be used for burials.

Most of the homeowners signed a petition asking city leaders to impose a 25-foot buffer zone and some type of plant screening.

"Some Elmo Street residents are upset about a Susong Cemetery Association plan that would bring gravesites within a few feet of their backyards.

Resident Landon Mann said Tuesday he’s considering legally challenging plans to sell burial plots along a 75-foot-wide strip of cemetery property that abuts his property. The land, between the cemetery’s northern boundary and Walnut Drive, abuts the property of more than a dozen Elmo Street homes.

'We were told, when we bought property here, that [cemetery] land would never be used for burials. It would only be used for parking for funerals,' Mann said, adding he has no paperwork to back up that assertion.

Neighbor Chassie Van Pool, who’s lived in her Elmo Street home for 12 years, said she also understood the land wouldn’t be used for burials.

'I just don’t like it, They [trustees] should have come by. I don’t think that’s enough space between my fence and that [cemetery],' Van Pool said.

Current zoning prescribes a 10-foot buffer zone between the cemetery and adjoining property.

The first burial in the new section is scheduled for today.

On Monday, Mann presented a petition to the city’s Planning Department, asking city leaders to impose a 25-foot buffer zone and some type of plant screening for separation. Residents of 13 of 15 Elmo Street homes signed the petition."

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