A citizens group called South East Aurora Quality of Life (SEAQOL, Inc) has sued the city of Aurora, Colorado for allowing a Wal-Mart to be approved. According to SEAQOL President Sheila Hanna: “Our lawsuit, which includes charges that Aurora City Council violated its’ own City Zoning Ordinances and Comprehensive Plan, is still underway. Meanwhile, construction is underway at the project site. During construction, a historic pioneer cemetery has been desecrated and
numerous pioneer burials have been unearthed. Denver developer Mark Goldberg of Goldberg Property Associates, a subsidiary of JDN Realty Corp.of Atlanta, claims that he only learned of the cemetery during construction. County coroners and the developer state that the unearthed remains were outside of the cemetery boundaries while failing to mention that the only boundaries ever mapped of the cemetery were mapped by the developer himself in conjunction with a “professional” with unknown credentials using ground penetrating radar, a tactic that the Colorado State Cemetery Association called unreliable. Press accounts of the unearthing of bodies make no mention of attempts to contact relatives of the deceased for permission to exhume or relocate the remains. It’s kind of a shame that Sam Walton isn’t buried here too so that he, like the stout-hearted pioneers buried here, could become a “feature” of this Wal-Mart & Home Depot anchored mega-shopping center.”
The JDN company seems to have a prediliction for developing burial sites. Search this database by “JDN” for further exploits of this developer. I recall that a Wal-Mart in Leeds, NY was halted as soon as indian burial remains were found. In some states, burial grounds cannot be developed. Search this Newsflash page by “burial” for similar stories. For more background on the desecration of Aurora’s historic burial ground to make way for the “dead” architecture of a Wal-Mart box, contact Sheila Hanna at shanna@hannasolutions.com.Perhaps we could convince Target to put up a store at Sam Walton’s plot?
