Hot real estate and land markets aren’t just squeezing the living these days, but also those who have been laid to eternal rest. More and more older cemeteries in city neighborhoods like Dorchester, and in the inner suburbs like Cambridge and Milton, have come to a crisis point in finding new land for burials. When it comes to the business of a cemetery, as burials slow, so, too, does important revenue that keeps the venture afloat and the grounds well-maintained.

While other cemeteries struggle to find new space, Cedar Grove Cemetery has just finalized the purchase and zoning change for a 40,000-plus square-foot tract near its Butler Street entrance that will keep it viable for decades to come.

“When a cemetery runs out of space and there are fewer burials, it becomes harder to bring in revenues and keep them operating,” said Tony Paciulli, superintendent of the Cedar Grove graveyard. “A lot of cemeteries have been taken on by municipalities because of that…We have picked up several thousand new gravesites. What this acquisition mean to us is that it’s another 15 to 20 years of sustainability for the cemetery. That means a lot. “With other things we’re looking at also, we think we can pick up additional space, but this land acquisition is a key part to the future of the cemetery.”

The land in question is a strip behind Adams Street and next to Butler Street of what was, and is, a patch of overgrown gullies that Cedar Grove plans to level out over time to make additional space for plots. Last summer, crews began leveling out a large piece of the new property. What was once overgrown, wild and crawling with critters is now leveled, seeded, and lying-in-wait with several healthy trees saved nearby.

At the Nov. 18 Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) meeting, the board voted by 5-0 to approve a zoning amendment that changed the 40,000 square-foot property from a single family, 5,000 square-foot zone to an open space-cemetery use zone. The plan was also supported by the Lower Mills Civic Association and the Cedar Grove Civic. The okay cleared the way for Cedar Grove to officially start planning for the new section.

Paciulli said he hopes they can make use of at least half or two-thirds of the new property for burials. He also said that Cedar Grove – a non-profit organization that dates back to the 1860s – is fortunate because other graveyards, like the Milton Cemetery, cannot find more space. Faced with spiking land and real estate prices, it no longer makes financial sense for a cemetery to buy adjacent homes to tear down or lay out funds for buildable land in order to expand. That is when many older, ornate cemeteries start to decline as they cannot generate revenues to keep up expensive maintenance and tree care.

“Everything is built up now around these cemeteries,” said Paciulli, “and you cannot afford to buy adjacent property at today’s prices. About 10 to 12 years ago, we bought an adjacent home and took some of the land and re-sold the home. The prices out there today, we couldn’t afford to do that and come out ahead. To pay $1 million for a home along Adams Street – and some might go for that – it wouldn’t make sense for us now.”

Paciulli said it would take about 18 months to two years for the new land to settle, and then they would begin selling plots. After that, they will slowly fill in the remaining parts toward Butler Street – filling in and using what they can while cleaning up and beautifying what they cannot use.

In the meantime, he said, they will focus their efforts on being good neighbors and creating a buffer between the cemetery and the backyards of homes that abut the new areas. He added they have applied for Community Preservation Act funding to help with that beautification effort.

“The community supported us, and we want to be good neighbors,” he said. “The cemetery runs right up to some peoples’ backyards now. We don’t want to do that…A lot of people don’t mind living next to a cemetery. We don’t want it to be something where there’s a cemetery headstone eight feet from someone’s yard and people show up for a cookout and you can see it there. That’s not right. That’s why creating the buffer is so important.”