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Board says no to proposed crematory

Neighbors of Serenity Gardens Memorial Park say the facility is incompatible with the area, and they let the planning board know.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published September 9, 2006

LARGO - The city's planning board on Thursday night sided with neighbors who have spent more than a year fighting a proposed crematory at Serenity Gardens Memorial Park.

After listening to presentations from cemetery representatives and pleas from about a dozen neighbors, the board decided 3-to-2 against recommending that the City Commission approve a plan to build one of the county's largest crematories.

The operation would be incompatible with the neighborhood, board members said.

"I've never seen such a public outcry against a project as we've seen tonight," said board member Steve Terepka. "I think that demonstrates it's not compatible."

City commissioners are scheduled to decide the issue on Oct. 3.

"The opponents' arguments were based far more on emotion than facts, and I think at the end of the day the facts will carry the day," said attorney Ed Armstrong, who represented Serenity Gardens.

About 75 residents packed City Hall chambers Thursday for the meeting, which ended at nearly midnight. All who spoke said they worried about traffic, noise, pollution or property values. Some booed and heckled project representatives.

The city's development code allows cemeteries with crematories on institutional sites. It also requires new structures to be compatible with a neighborhood.

Neighbors said the proposed 13,177-square-foot crematory, which would have three furnaces, was an industrial use and didn't fit in the neighborhood.

But architect Richard Hartmann said his client, Serenity Gardens, had invested a lot of money in aesthetic features to make the new facility compatible. Those features included a pitched roof, stucco finish and abundant landscaping.

The crematory is planned north of Wilcox Road, about 120 feet from the nearest homes. Armstrong said the crematory would be bordered on three sides by institutional property, including a church and a vacant School Board property. Residents said most nearby properties are residential.

Residents and some planning board members also said they weren't convinced the emissions are safe. Crematory emissions typically produce carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury and particulates.

"How many times in my lifetime does the government say something is safe only to find out later it wasn't safe at all?" resident Cherie Darroch said.

Two board members said they had personal experiences that gave them pause about the plan. Terepka said he had lived near a facility that performed animal cremations and that facility had problems for weeks.

Board member Jim Pierce said he had driven by National Cremation Society on East Bay and saw black smoke followed by white smoke coming from the stack. SCI Funeral Services of Florida owns the cemetery and the National Cremation Society.

Peter Hessling, air quality division director for Pinellas County, said the environmental impact of emissions is negligible when crematories are operated properly.

The Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate crematories, but the county conducts an annual emissions test to make sure smoke from crematories is colorless, he said. Crematories also submit annual visual emissions tests from consultants to the county and the state, Hessling said.

New facilities must also submit stack tests that measure carbon monoxide and particulates or submit the same tests from identical units at other facilities.

Hessling wasn't able to quash one of the residents' key concerns: mercury emissions from bodies of people who have silver amalgam fillings that contain mercury. Mercury emissions from crematories are not regulated.

Last year the city hired a consultant, GLE Associates Inc., to review studies and pending regulations of crematories.

Resident Stanley Gams, who spoke at the meeting, homed in on the conclusion of GLE's analysis, which said that "since mercury contamination to water and land resources is a growing problem, it is likely that state and possibly federal regulatory agencies will continue to refine applicable mercury emissions standards, thereby resulting in potentially stricter testing and/or monitoring requirements."

"In essence, they're saying there is a danger and we need to address that danger," Gams said.

Hessling said an emission inventory calculation in 2002 found that the county's crematories yielded about 17 pounds of mercury that year.

"It's difficult if not impossible to measure that impact on the environment," Hessling said.

But board members Jim McCurtain and Nick Bereznoff said the cemetery representatives made the strongest arguments.

The city initially said the decision about the crematory was up to city staffers.

But City Manager Steve Stanton recommended that the plan come before the City Commission because city code allows for a public hearing in cases in which a staff review alone wouldn't protect the public interest.

Richard Chesler, general manager of Moss Feaster Serenity Gardens, said he was disappointed with the board's decision but was looking forward to the public hearing before commissioners.

"We're thinking we're going to win," Chesler said.

[Last modified September 9, 2006, 06:25:13]