Oak Knoll Church’s ‘Remembrance Garden’ Offers Peaceful Resting Place

Minnetonka’s Oak Knoll Lutheran Church plans to help loved ones remember those they’ve lost through a peaceful Remembrance Garden.

The garden will have a memorial wall and a columbarium—a structure with niches for storing funeral urns.

“The niches provide a peaceful resting place for loved ones' cremated remains whereas the memorial wall is a beautiful way to remember loved ones,” the church’s website states. “This garden is an extension of our church's facilities—a permanent resting place where family and friends can gather to remember loved ones.”

The columbarium will be about 12 feet wide, six feet high and three feet deep, according to plans submitted to the city. Niches cost $2,000 now and $2,500 once construction begins.

Oak Knoll’s columbarium caters to the increasing number of people who are choosing cremation. Numbers have been climbing since at least the 1960s. In 2011, the United States had a 42 percent cremation rate, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.

Oak Knoll said cremation offers “a theologically sound, environmentally friendly and economical option.”

Meanwhile, the memorial wall will offer a way to honor people who are buried elsewhere.

In order to move forward with the plan, the City of Minnetonka will need to change the existing conditional use permit to allow the columbarium and approve the site and building plan.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to convene a public hearing on the plan Aug. 1. The City Council should take up the issue Aug. 26.