HILO >> Hawaii County wants to increase the size of its largest cemetery by more than 50 percent.

The Department of Parks and Recreation, which manages the county’s 21 public cemeteries, says Alae Cemetery is running out of space.

The department’s deputy director, Clayton Honma, says the cemetery needs to be expanded to meet the demand for burial plots.

The nearly 18-acre cemetery north of Hilo has more than 9,200 plots. The department wants to develop an additional 11 acres of county land mauka of the existing grave sites.

The department’s proposal says at 500 plots per acre, that should produce between 5,000 and 6,000 new plots.

Any expansion would require a special permit from the county’s Windward Planning Commission.