Aldermen approve special exception for crematory
Serenity Funeral Home owner Billy Autry made his case for a special exception to put a cemetery and crematory in a slice of property off Martin Luther King Drive at the March 4 meeting of the Holly Springs Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
Only three aldermen were present – Fountain, Jones and Shipp – and the mayor was present by telephone.
It was Autry's second appearance in the boardroom to ask for a special exception. He presented his case before a boardroom filled with citizens for and against his project.
The Planning Commission denied Autry's request and he appealed to the board of aldermen for a special exception.
Citizens' concerns and aldermen concerns were covered.
Autry sat with Gary Seldon, owner of GS Contractors, as the two presented their request.
Ward 1 alderman Bernita Fountain made prefacing remarks.
“I promised y'all I was going to look into it,” she said.
She wanted more information on the crematory process and community feedback, she said.
“What I would like to know is what happened at the Planning Commission,” said vicemayor Dexter Shipp.
Autry asked to speak first and apologized for getting emotional at his initial appearance before the board of aldermen.
He said the reason he was emotional was that Fountain had said she got blindsided at the first meeting and asked for more information.
“I didn't realize there would be opposition,” Autry said.
He said he was emotional because he thought “everything we were doing was legal.” Autry listed some major points for discussion:
• he's been in the funeral home business 23 years. From the first year he had requests for cremations and those requests have increased in number since.
• six years ago he established an on-site crematory in Oxford, putting it in house that he purchased in a neighborhood that had $1 million houses next door. He used part of the structure for a crematory, part for a funeral home and lived in the upstairs apartment for a year.
• he decided several months ago to request a permit to build a crematory in Holly Springs because of increased request for cremations.
• he learned from the Planning Commission that the city ordinances did not provide a place for a crematory in the city. So he requested for a variance to place a crematory in a business district where it is only allowed by special exception.
• the prior month he had over a dozen requests for cremations over all his business locations. He's never had a complaint about a crematory he owns lodged with the state.
• he tried to show a need for a crematory in Holly Springs to the Planning Commission. He does not think any opposition to his proposal is valid. Citizens asked if he would want a crematory in his neighborhood. He cited the Oxford business already described here.
• a motel operator thought the location of a crematory would be detrimental to his business. Autry said he lived next to the motel next to the late mayor Eddie Lee Smith's father.
“The motel was packed every night and there was a cemetery right down the street,” he said. “It is not valid that a crematory or a cemetery is going to affect his business,” he said.
• a third community member said the crematory would cause grief. He said people live next to cemeteries in Holly Springs.
“I don't think that's valid,” he said. “Progress is going to take place with or without us,” Zoning administrator Pam Lewis said Autry is asking for a variance, but a site plan will not be approved until the city engineer approves the plan.
The building will have to meet the environmental quality requirements of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
Seldon said Autry will have to get certification for the crematory after it is built and the state inspects it.
Fire Chief Rodney Crane said the state said it has had zero complaints filed against crematories. He said crematories must be built to specifications and tested to assure that it operates to specifications and is self contained with blowers and filters and can maintain a constant temperature throughout the burn cycle.
“So, there would not be a real big black cloud hanging over the city,” Crane said.
DeJeanette Taylor was given one minute by Mayor Gipson to express opposition.
Taylor said Mississippi has the lowest number of cremations so there would not be a lot of information about whether people are complaining and that there is not a lot of information to go on.
Taylor said she lives near a cemetery and she is concerned about her property values. She said Autry tore down buildings on property on Craft Street to save on property taxes.
“But you refuse to sell it because of land,” she said to Autry. “Property, property. And I want my property value to last as well.”
Board attorney John Keith Perry Jr. said Taylor's one-minute time limit had expired.
Gipson called for a motion. Planning Commissioner Janssen Pegues asked to speak. He said he co-chaired the planning commission meeting.
The meeting was not so much about a crematorium.
“Nobody was against it,” Pegues said. “You (Autry) withdrew your request for a variance.” He said the planning commission had a list of all citizens given an opportunity to talk and explain themselves and the reasons they did not want a crematory.
He said a motel owner was in attendance and did not want it in the area.
“The long and short, Mayor, they just did not want it in the area,” Pegues said. “It wasn't about the EPA. It wasn't about his site plans. They did not want it there. In the end, he (Autry) agreed.”
“Sir, Mr. Pegues, I changed my mind,” Autry said.
Ward 2 alderman Andre Jones expressed a concern that the city would face legal issues if the variance is denied.
“Everything he's doing is legal,” Jones said.
He made a motion to approve the variance and Fountain seconded.
The motion passed by a vote of 2 to 1, with vice-mayor Dexter Shipp voting nay.