KANE'OHE — Two new cemetery projects could add as many as 90,000 plots to O'ahu's inventory over the next decade, marking the first large-scale industry development in more than 40 years.

Owners of Paradise Memorial Park expect to have some 60,000 plots in Hawai'i Kai's Kamilonui Valley once that new facility is fully developed, and Hawaiian Memorial Park is proposing a 35-acre expansion that will provide about 30,000 additional plots in Kane'ohe.

The plans come as O'ahu's cemeteries have fewer and fewer available gravesites. While operators of some cemeteries say they have room to last several years, they acknowledge that the Island's growing elderly population will increasingly tax the available space.

Neither project is being fast tracked. Paradise Memorial was first introduced in 2000 and doesn't expect to break ground until early next year. Hawaiian Memorial just introduced its expansion proposal in January, and it could face years of planning, including a zone-change process that has residents petitioning against the project.

But new burial space is needed, according to people in the industry.

"I know that space is limited islandwide," said David Morikami, president of the Hawai'i Funeral Directors Association. Given the number of burials that Hawaiian Memorial performs each year, the addition could last the company almost 40 years, Morikami said.

By Hawai'i standards, the increase is substantial, he said.

O'ahu has seven cemeteries that are currently accepting burials. There are other facilities, such as the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, and the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery, but they are restricted in which burials can be accepted.

Some 65 percent to 68 percent of Hawai'i's population chooses cremation and that reduces the pressure for ground plots, but even some cremated remains have burials, Morikami said.

The owners of Hawaiian Memorial Park want to develop about 35 acres of a 164.4-acre parcel above Pikoiloa subdivision and Mokulele Drive. The owners want to carve out a small part of the 35-acre parcel to build homes. The residences would be next to the Pohai Nani retirement facility. City and state approval of the project hinges on a change of zoning for the acreage from conservation to urban.

Planning consultant Scott Ezer, with Helber, Hastert and Fee, presented the idea to neighboring homeowners and is planning an open meeting this month in partnership with the Kane'ohe Neighborhood Board.

Some neighbors oppose the expansion.

"I don't want to have dead bodies in my backyard," said Grant Yoshimori, whose home abuts the cemetery property and who is organizing protesters. "It's just creepy."

Yoshimori said he also is concerned that trees on the cemetery property will have to be cut down, and once those trees go, water runoff would increase. Cemetery owner Services Corp. International wants to hear people's concerns, Ezer said.

"Nothing has been decided and the landowner ... doesn't have any intention to submit (formal application) until there's more dialogue with the community," he said.

SCI wants to rezone 55 acres, of which 35 can be developed, Ezer said. About 90 percent of that will be lawn area for burials and 10 percent will be used for roads and mausolea, he said. One acre has been set aside for the preservation of archaeological sites and four acres would be used to create a 20-lot subdivision, he said.

The subdivision would be an economic jump-start for the project, Ezer said.

Cemetery operators say that burial requests will outnumber current inventory as baby boomers die.

By 2030, the state is forecast to have one of the nation's highest percentages of elderly residents relative to its overall population, census figures show.

Although cemetery operators were not willing to share exact numbers, they said they have enough inventory for several more years. Though many do not have more land, they can expand by building niches for urns or using plots for multiple urn burials.

"There's a lot of demand and room for growth for everyone in the market right now," said Jennifer Urquhart, senior vice president for PRM Realty, which is designing the new Hawai'i Kai cemetery. "We are moving into a period of time where the largest portion of our population is the oldest portion."

Mililani Memorial Park & Mortuary is one of the newest cemetery developments — opened in 1965 — and it has room for expansion, unlike many cemeteries, said Eadean Buffington, executive assistant at Mililani Park.

Often, opening a new location is not an attractive option.

It can be costly, especially if a variance or zone change is needed, Buffington said.

"It causes the price of those plots to be at least 30 percent higher than what's on the market," she said.

Buffington said she understands some residents' concern about living next to a cemetery, but over the years attitudes have changed. People now picnic at the cemetery.

"The stigma has died down," she said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.