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Letter to the editor

New limits on crematories

The city's plan targets setback distance, location and lot size.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published July 13, 2007

LARGO – City leaders are moving forward with plans to keep newly built crematories away from homes.

City Commissioners directed staff this week to draft new city rules that will limit crematories to industrial properties and require a 500-foot distance between crematories and residential properties.

For the most part, the new restrictions, which commissioners could grant initial approval to as early as Tuesday, would limit crematories to areas of central and eastern Largo near Ulmerton Road and Roosevelt Boulevard.

The decision Tuesday night comes nine months after commissioners denied a hotly contested proposal to build one of Pinellas County's largest crematories at Serenity Gardens Memorial Park, about 100 feet from nearby homes.

"My commitment was to the health and safety of the residents," said Commissioner Rodney Woods. "I wouldn't support anything under 500 feet."

Under current city rules, sites classified as institutional allow cemeteries with crematories.

Gerald Flanagan, one of hundreds of residents who opposed the crematory, said city leaders made a reasonable decision regarding the distance requirement.

"If they do not put a setback in there, they will have the same issues they had at Serenity Gardens," said Flanagan who lives about 125 feet from where the crematory was proposed.

Several commissioners had initially requested a 1,000-foot separation from homes.

But City Attorney Alan Zimmet said it would be difficult to defend a 1,000-foot requirement in court. The rule would restrict crematories to so few areas it would appear to virtually ban them in Largo, he said.

If there was a court challenge, the city might be left with no restrictions on such facilities, he said.

"The thing that annoys me is that we have to let litigation drive common sense," said Stanley Gams, another resident who opposed the crematory.

But Gams, among 10 residents at the workshop Tuesday, said the distance was a fair compromise. "If the attorney is willing to work with that, 500 feet is not a bad deal."

In the end, five commissioners agreed on the 500-foot distance.

Commissioner Mary Gray Black said she would go no lower than 750 feet. Commissioner Gay Gentry concurred with staff, who recommended forgoing the distance requirement entirely.

The new rules would also set guidelines for the size of lots required for such facilities. The city's industrial land-use categories require a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet. Basically, that would limit facilities to 13,000 square feet on sites that size, said Assistant Community Development director Robert Klute.

The facility size could be limited further if other elements are added to the property, such as parking lots, dumpsters or sidewalks.

The issue first arose in June 2005, when Serenity Gardens' owners proposed building a 13,177-square-foot facility, with a 5,600-square-foot crematory, on the southeast corner of the cemetery's property on Wilcox Road, just north of Mia Circle.

The proposed three-furnace crematory would have served nine funeral homes in Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Hundreds of residents packed city meetings saying the crematory would damage the environment, their health and their property values.

After commissioners denied the plan, SCI Funeral Services of Florida, the cemetery owner, filed an appeal in Pinellas Circuit Court in November. The case is pending.

Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or lorri@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 01:28:51]