York County worried development will disturb unknown grave sites

Will the dead stay buried?

York County officials hope so. As new development moves into undeveloped portions of the county, the County Council’s zoning committee is considering how to handle the discovery of unmarked graves.

The issue has come up more than once in new subdivisions. Last summer, construction of a 1,000-home Fort Mill development by Crescent Communities had to be altered when 16 Native American graves were discovered on the property. In 2014, Mattamy Homes conducted a survey of a Lake Wylie site slated for 175 homes over concerns it might contain a slave burial ground.

That case in particular concerned County Councilman Bruce Henderson, who chairs the zoning committee and has often raised concerns about overdevelopment around the lake.

“I believe there have been some cases where graves have been bulldozed over, maybe even before the state had any regulations for this,” Henderson said Monday night.

When he looked into the Mattamy case, which is in his district, Henderson said he couldn’t find anything “on the books” about handling a potential grave site, and was advised by members of the legislative delegation that the county should set clear regulations on the issue.

No graves were ultimately found on the property off Bonum Road by a survey team hired by Mattamy. Archaeologists with SEARCH Inc. of Columbia used ground-penetrating radar to search potential grave sites indicated by a local resident, without finding any human remains.

Henderson admitted residents who raised concerns about the presence of graves were also opposed to the development itself. But he was concerned that the developer took on responsibility for the survey, while the county had no formal role in the process.

“I know they wanted to put it on hold, at least,” he said. “But when I went out there it looked like a cemetery,” similar to area churchyards where slaves are known to be buried.

Henderson said he would like to legally freeze development “within a certain perimeter” on a site believed to hold graves. County Planning Director Audra Miller said that while the law prohibits disturbing a known gravesite, there’s no “minimum buffer” for work taking place around the grave.

Councilman William “Bump” Roddey worried any change would become a tool for opponents to use against developers.

“I don’t want this to put on any additional burden or cost,” Roddey said. “You can have a situation where something’s alleged just to slow down or burden the developer.”

If someone unintentionally uncovers human remains – and after law enforcement determines they don’t constitute a crime scene – the remains themselves are left up to the property owner and archaeologists working within state regulations.

By law, a body can’t be removed from a grave without the person’s heirs being identified and informed, or after the discovery of a grave is advertised, Miller said.

Henderson pointed out that some cultures, particularly when it comes to Native-American and African-American sites, deny that a body can be being removed from its burial place without being desecrated. He wants regulations to respect that. Federal law already protects Native American grave sites on federal or tribal lands, requires any cultural items be turned over to a recognized tribe and sets up procedures for having a burial ground placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The zoning committee asked county staff to research how other counties dealing with growth have protected grave sites, with an eye toward York County drawing up its own ordinance.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 9:21 PM with the headline "York County worried development will disturb unknown grave sites."