Cemetery proposed for site of former Parkside Nursery

The grandson of the late owners of the former Parkside Nursery in Muskego told the Muskego Plan Commission the family hopes the city will approve a proposal to turn the site into a cemetery because that would preserve much of the natural beauty that was so much a part of the nursery's operation.

Patrick Murphy spoke to the commission Tuesday as it took a preliminary look at the proposal. The proposed cemetery on 17 acres at W14105 Tess Corners Drive would have no aboveground markers.

Mark Kosobucki is proposing the cemetery, which could accommodate up to 3,200 burial sites plus seven outdoor mausoleums, an indoor one, a pond with a sitting park, walking trails, a reception area, offices, bathrooms, a community room, two chapels, a crematorium and a pet burial section.

Kosobucki is tied to three Muskego developments - Golden Country Estates, Foxboro and Foxboro North - as well as Golden Bay and Golden Meadows, both in Tichigan.

Commissioners wanted to know how the neighbors feel about a cemetery coming to a residential area. There also was concern about the possibility of a high water table because wetlands are on part of the tract. The developer hasn't completed soil borings that will answer that question.

Maintenance would be taken care of through a fund that would be set up, under state requirements, Jeff Muenkel, community development director, said, and the cemetery would be fenced in with a gate that would be closed at night.

The commission invited the developer to come back with a formal application after those and other questions about state requirements and changes needed on the local level were detailed.