A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to modify the county population and minimum cemetery acreage tract requirements in certain instances.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 65‑55(f) reads as rewritten:
"§ 65‑55.  License; cemetery company.
…
(f)	If the Commission intends to grant the authority, it shall give written notice that the authority to organize a cemetery has been granted and that a license to operate will be issued upon the completion of the following:
(1)	Establishment of the care and maintenance trust fund and receipt by the Commission of a certificate from the trust company, certifying receipt of the initial deposit required under this Article.
(2)	Full development, ready for burial, of not less than two acres including a completed paved road from a public roadway to said developed section, certified by inspection of the Commission or its representative.
(3)	A description, by metes and bounds, of the acreage tract of the proposed cemetery, together with evidence, by title insurance policy or by certificate of an attorney‑at‑law, certifying that the applicant is the owner in fee simple of the tract of land, which must contain not less than 30 acres, and that the title to not less than 30 acres is free and clear of all encumbrances. In counties with a population of less than 100,000 population according to the latest federal decennial census the tract need be only 20 acres.
(4)	A plat of the cemetery showing the number and location of all lots surveyed and permanently staked for sale."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 65‑69 reads as rewritten:
"§ 65‑69.  Minimum acreage; sale or disposition of cemetery lands.
(a)	Each licensee shall set aside a minimum of 30 acres of land for use by said licensee as a cemetery, and shall not sell, mortgage, lease or encumber the same.
(b)	The fee simple title, or lesser estate, in any lands owned by licensee and dedicated for use by it as a cemetery, which are contiguous, adjoining, or adjacent to the minimum of 30 acres described in subsection (a), may be sold, conveyed, or disposed of, or any part thereof, by the licensee, for use by the new owner for other purposes than as a cemetery; provided that no bodies have been previously interred therein; and provided further, that any and all titles, interests, or burial rights which may have been sold or contracted to be sold in such lands which are the subject of such sale shall be conveyed to and revested in the licensee prior to consummation of any such sale, conveyance or disposition.
(c)	Any licensee may convey and transfer to a municipality or county its real and personal property together with moneys deposited with the trustee; provided said municipality or county will accept responsibility for maintenance thereof and prior written approval of the Commission is first obtained.
(d)	The provisions of subsections (a) and (b) relating to a requirement for minimum acreage shall not apply to those cemeteries licensed by the Commission on or before July 1, 1967, which own or control a total of less than 30 acres of land; provided that such cemeteries shall not dispose of any of such lands. A nongovernment lien or other interest in land acquired in violation of this section is void.
(e)	Notwithstanding subsections (a) through (c) of this section, the minimum acreage required by counties with a population of less than 100,000 according to the latest federal decennial census shall be 20 acres of land."
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.