Dying will cost you more now in Langley

Published 1:30 am Friday, November 28, 2025

Getting buried in Langley Woodmen Cemetery just got more expensive.

Last week, the city council approved a resolution amending municipal fees. As part of that, the cost of a green burial plot is increasing significantly, from $1,200 to $2,500. Traditional graves are also going up, from $1,000 to $1,500. In addition, there is a new fee of $100 for plaque installation that didn’t exist before.

However, a $400 maintenance fee for green burial has been eliminated because those fees were already included when calculating the fee for burial, Mayor Kennedy Horstman explained to the city council.

Finance Director Kelly Beech said the city’s citizen-led Cemetery Board analyzed the fees of neighboring cemeteries and came up with the increases. Beech did a preliminary analysis of her own, looking at average fees in Western Washington for cemetery plots, green and traditional burials, and paid specific attention to cemeteries in the area like Sunnyside Cemetery in Coupeville.

Beech mentioned in a previous memo to the city council that fees need to be raised to sustain the activities of the Langley cemetery, keeping it maintained.

Last year, 26 new green burial spaces were added to the cemetery’s ash garden to keep up with the growing demand for alternative decomposition.

Deputy Clerk Kristen Miller Abraham confirmed that as of this week, there are 32 people on the waitlist for green burial plots. There is no waitlist for traditional burial, however.