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City wins fight over crematorium plans
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008 |
LARGO – City Attorney Alan Zimmet said plans have been thwarted for a crematorium in the Serenity Gardens cemetery on Wilcox Road.
Zimmet told city commissioners during their Jan. 22 meeting that he was told a Pinellas County Court judge had rejected an appeal of the city’s rejection of the proposal and no further appeal was planned by the cemetery owners.
Hundreds of residents whose homes surround the cemetery objected to the crematorium, claiming dangerous chemicals would be spilled into the air and that the crematorium would reduce their property values.
The city rejected the proposal last year on the grounds that a crematorium, although allowed in cemeteries, would be inconsistent with the surrounding neighborhoods. The commission subsequently removed crematoriums from allowed uses in cemeteries and made them permissible only in industrial land-use zones.
Originally, since a crematorium was an approved use in a cemetery, the application from the landowner, Moss Feaster Funeral Homes, could have been approved by then city Director of Community Development Mike Staffopoulos. But, in the face of public opposition to the proposal, Staffopoulos deferred the approval to the city planning board.
The planning board, while finding the crematorium met all city requirements, rejected the project on the basis of its incompatibility with surrounding neighborhoods. Amid jammed meeting rooms and public clamor, this ruling was upheld by the City Commission.
The cemetery owners then appealed the decision to county court, claiming the city had acted without sufficient cause.
Zimmet said this argument was rejected by the court. He added the property owners’ attorney also told him that there were no plans to carry the appeal any further.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008
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