Porirua City Council manages three public cemeteries, two of which are now closed. The third cemetery, Whenua Tapu, is still open, but may reach capacity by as early as 2036.
As part of Porirua City Council’s approved 50-year Project Plan for Cemetery Expansion, we are now looking for additional cemetery land within the city. With our city continuing to grow, it is important that we plan ahead to manage the future needs of our growing population.
Council is working with project partners Harrison Grierson, Veros and CMW Geoscience to undertake a comprehensive district-wide review to identify suitable sites.
Work commenced in November 2024 and is progressing well, with several key milestones already achieved. Over the last four months, we have developed a digital site identification tool which uses available geospatial data to filter for potentially suitable areas of land. This has enabled the entire district to be analysed in a short space of time.
As part of this process, Council has been engaging with relevant stakeholders, including Ngāti Toa, to ensure any implications related to areas of cultural significance are considered.
The next phase of the project will involve narrowing down the list of potential areas, by reviewing them against a range of relevant decision-making criteria. We expect that this will be done over the next few months, with a short list of preferred areas confirmed by later in 2025.
