Herndon plans for last remaining acres of Chestnut Grove Cemetery

The Town of Herndon is laying out a new plan for the final resting place of nearly 4 acres of Chestnut Grove Cemetery (831 Dranesville Road).

At a Herndon Town Council work session last Tuesday (Jan. 16), town staff laid out a new plan for the final set of undeveloped land on the property, which was transferred to the town as a gift in 1997.

The town intends to work with consulting firm The Tribute Companies on a revised master plan for the undeveloped northwest corner.

Randy Schell, chief program and project manager, said the new master plan is intended to bring the development up to new trends for burials and customs.

“The cemetery is running out of plots for burials, and burials customs have changed through the years,” Schell told the council at the meeting.

The plan will include an updated stormwater management facility, ground slopes and changes to the road infrastructure to address longstanding drainage issues on residential property west of the cemetery.

The master plan for the cemetery was created in 1999.

Construction on the project would begin in the fall, with completion anticipated sometime in the summer of 2025. Buffer landscaping would wrap up in the fall of that year.

The revised layout increases the number of columbarium spaces from 920 to 1,450 and reduces the number of cremation garden sites from 600 to 190. The number of mausoleum crypts is also significantly slashed from 940 to 352.

Image via Town of Herndon