Plans to develop Hillside Cemetery are suspended

A plan to exhume and move for than 800 bodies in Reno’s oldest cemetery as part of an effort to develop the land has been suspended.

A spokesman for the Hillside Cemetery west of the University of Nevada, Reno issued this statement on Sunday:

“In view of a few families' unfavorable responses received during the notification phase of the restoration plan for the Hillside Cemetery, effective today the plan for the restoration has been suspended.”

The Hillside Cemetery owner had posted plans to clear the land for development.

The cemetery was created in the 1800s. It holds the remains of some of the founders of the city of Reno. Its last grave was dug in 1959.