GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Dozens of Peachtree Corners residents are fighting to keep a local funeral home from adding a crematory to its property.
The residents fear the addition will impact their health and property values, but the funeral home owner says he knows of no such dangers.
Christy Creedon is leading the effort to convince the Peachtree Corners City Council to reject the zoning change request by the Crowell Brothers Peachtree Chapel Funeral Directors located on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
"It is such an uncomfortable idea to have a commercial incinerator that close to our property and our home and where our children spend their days and their evenings," Creedon said.
The Crowell Brothers want to add the crematory inside the back portion of their existing facility.
Owner Jeff Crowell showed Channel 2's Tony Thomas an architect's drawings of what the addition would look like. Basically, it would add only a chimney-like smokestack to the top of the building.
By agreement with the city, if approved, the crematory could only be operated during business hours and Crowell Brothers could only provide services to their own customers.
"The demand for cremation is becoming greater and greater every day and we are trying to offer that service," Crowell said.
Crowell said his company offers cremation services, but does it offsite through another company. Crowell says 44 percent of the families coming to Crowell Brothers request cremation, and that number is only growing.
Crowell told Thomas he understands many people still find the idea of cremation, especially when it's being done near their homes, to be creepy.
"We are battling perception, and 99 percent of most cases is because people just don't understand the process of cremating someone," Crowell said.
Neighbors say they are fighting for more than just to keep a crematory out of their neighborhood. They also feel making the zoning change would go against why the new city was formed less than three years ago.
"They really don't have the right type of property and it doesn't fit with the neighborhoods or the businesses locally in this community," said resident Harry Frazer.
"There are so many lovely areas of this city where this could happen as well," Creedon said.
She warns other residents on the other side of the city that if this is passed, in her view, any commercial property in the city is then fair game.
Residents planned to pack a city council meeting Tuesday night, where a first vote on the question was planned. A final vote won't be taken until late October. Crowell said if the change is approved, he hopes to have the crematory installed and working by sometime in April.
WSBTV
