People are dying to get into Langley Woodmen Cemetery.

So much so that 26 new green burial spaces were added to the cemetery’s ash garden to keep up with the growing demand for alternative decomposition.

The Langley City Council approved the addition of the new plots during a meeting Monday night.

In a memo, Councilmember Rhonda Salerno noted that there is currently a waitlist for 40 green burial plots. Green burial graves cost $1,200 and there is an additional maintenance fee of $400.

The southeast corner of the cemetery, which has a garden for scattering ashes, was found to have enough space to accommodate 26 more plots for green burial, which allows the body to decompose naturally in an environmentally conscious manner.

“What I learned about green burial is when we first opened ours, there was wind of this in other communities in the Seattle area, and so a lot of people came up and bought green burial spots and used up our spots,” Salerno lamented.

Councilmember Chris Carlson wondered whether to what extent the city reevaluated the fees associated with burial sites to validate that they cover the short-term and long-term costs associated with the net new sites.

Mayor Kennedy Horstman responded that she has spoken with Randi Perry, the city’s public works director, who was comfortable with the situation and noted that the city needed to look at where it stands financially in regard to long-term maintenance.