The Westover Town Hall council chamber was standing room only for Thursday’s Board of Zoning Appeals meeting as dozens of Westover residents and business owners came to express their opinions on a recent application filed by McCulla Funeral Home to build a crematorium on their property.
In May of last year, Westover City Council approved changes to the city’s land use code which gave any funeral homes within the city the ability to have a crematory on site. After applying however, the code requires a conditional use approval from the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals.
After the 2022 changes, Smith Funeral Home applied for a crematory and was met with strong opposition from local residents before giving up the fight.
This time, McCulla Funeral Home owner William McCulla faced the crowd to plead his case for approval of the crematory, assuring his neighbors he would never do anything he thought would harm his lifelong home.
“I’m a Westover guy,” he said, explaining the funeral home would follow all federal and state codes and regulations when constructing and using the building, and emissions would be considerably less than EPA regulations allow for.
“I’ve always operated my business in a fair manner and I’ve always been a part of the community. I try to do the best I can and I’m always a phone call away if you have a concern,” he said.
McCulla also made it clear that the crematory would not be operating all the time, stating an average cremation takes roughly three hours and McCulla provides cremation services for around 100 people a year, meaning it would only burn for about 300 hours of the 8,760 hours in a year.
While 300 hours of use may not seem like enough to constitute building the crematory, McCulla said the ability to provide the service in-house would give them more control over cremations and they would not have to operate within the timelines of a third party crematory.
Of the dozen or so citizens who chose to speak to BZA members, arguments on both sides remained relatively the same.
Those opposed to the crematorium said their main concerns revolved around two primary topics: the potential for a decrease in property value near McCulla, as well as smoke emissions.
Many argued that any amount of hazardous materials could be present in a body being burned including things like mercury dental fillings, pacemakers and prosthetics, any of which could cause health concerns for the families living around McCulla.
When the public was made aware of the application’s submission was also problematic for many in attendance, who took issue with the announcement in the newspaper coming on Dec. 28, leaving less than a month to raise awareness of the meeting.
Sights initially turned to McMulla accusing him of being “shady,” but Westover attorney Tim Stranko clarified it is the city who puts out the notice and it strictly complied with the law.
Stranko later explained that all permit applicants and notices must be treated the same regardless of whether it might be a “contentious issue.”
Several spoke in favor of McCulla, saying that as a man of good character, he would do everything needed to keep the crematory safe and compliant — while reminding their fellow residents that businesses should be allowed to grow, and if crematories were hazardous they would not be allowed in the first place.
Board members expressed they were torn in their decisions, but ultimately voted to deny the conditional use permit based on safeguarding and maintaining homeowners’ rights.
“You know, this is what the best of the government does,” McCulla said. “You gotta respect it and I respect the decision. I do not want to do anything against what anybody would want and I honor that request. It’s a tough decision.”
