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Debate shows need for crematory codes

These days neighborhoods fight proposals for even pleasant amenities like sidewalks and parks near them, so it is no surprise that a planned crematory really outraged people who live near Serenity Gardens cemetery in southwest Largo.

About 200 residents jammed Largo City Hall on Oct. 3 as city commissioners debated whether to approve or deny the cemetery's request to build a three-stack commercial crematory on the south side of its property, across Wilcox Road from homes.

Residents feared that smoke from the crematory would invade their yards and create unpleasant odors. They worried about the chemicals, such as small amounts of mercury and sulfur dioxide, that can be contained in the smoke from a crematory. They believed that the presence of the crematory, along with the traffic created by the operation, would devalue their homes.

The legal team for the cemetery brought a raft of experts to the quasijudicial public hearing. Health experts noted, correctly, that federal regulators do not consider crematories a significant source of air pollution. Other experts testified to the need - no debate about this - for more crematories, since it is an increasingly popular alternative to a casket burial and especially important in a densely populated county like Pinellas. The experts confirmed that crematories operate quietly near neighborhoods in other areas and produce no significant complaints.

The cemetery's team also confirmed that Largo's land development code allows crematories on land designated institutional, which is the designation for Serenity Gardens. In fact, the city staff could have given the crematory project a routine approval without asking the City Commission.

Yet at the end of hours of testimony from the crematory side and the residents, city commissioners denied the project 5 to 1. They grilled the cemetery's experts until they conceded that scientists cannot say conclusively that the emissions from a crematory are harmless. Commissioners also decided that a commercial crematory just wasn't compatible with the quiet neighborhood across the street.

It was a tough issue for all concerned, and demonstrates why it is important to write city development codes carefully and thoughtfully.

The lesson Largo should take from the crematory debate is that its code probably should restrict human crematories to commercial and industrial properties, where there is less sensitivity to noise, traffic, etc., or should contain a distance requirement from residential areas.

Largo likely will get more proposals for crematories. The city needs to prepare now.

[Last modified October 13, 2006, 07:06:12]