October 24, 2025 | Mark Luis Foster

Just in time for Halloween comes the story of an HOA that butts up against a civil war cemetery, and the now under-fire Atlanta-area HOA is required to take care of the grounds, which are deemed historic.

From Atlanta First News:

Piney Grove Cemetery is home to more than 300 graves, some of which predate the Civil War. Last year, it was named on the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Places in Peril list.

The historic cemetery is in Fulton County, or more specifically, in Buckhead, which is a relatively upscale area of the Atlanta metro.

Resting behind The Bluffs at Lenox, the cemetery is overgrown and hard to access. In 2024, the advocacy group Friends of Piney Grove Cemetery, along with two descendants of people buried there, filed a lawsuit against the HOA, demanding it maintain the graves.

The HOA’s own covenants have been legally interpreted to require such care, and the judge in the case made that point clear. He also is requiring that the HOA come up with a maintenance plan by Nov. 3, or the board faces trial.

The cemetery is indeed historic, and those resting there deserve some TLC. We’ll monitor this to determine its outcome.

Read the story and view the legal filing HERE.