BALTIMORE — Vaughn Greene Funeral Services is working to get a crematorium right on York Road, but Councilman Mark Conway has introduced a bill that he hopes will change the zoning areas for where crematoriums are allowed.
“Everywhere, there is a funeral home or a cemetery [where] we could see a crematorium being put up," says Mark Conway.
In 2020, Vaughn Greene Funeral Services submitted a request to the Maryland Department of the Environment for an air quality permit with the hopes of building a human crematorium.
Many of the people living near the funeral home are now concerned about how having a crematorium so close to their homes will affect their air quality.
“We don’t object to the well-regulated operation of crematory incinerators. What we do object to is them being located less than 200 feet away from our children’s backyards," says Lisa Polyak
Sidney Chance lives in the Richnor Springs Neighborhood and she says while she has nothing against cremation, she doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of burning human remains near her home.
“Every family in my community has the right to breathe free air, clean air," says Chance
At Monday night’s city council meeting, councilman Mark Conway presented the bill to the council. The purpose is to create a new zoning code that would prevent crematoriums from being close to schools or areas where a lot of people live.
“As we begin to look at the environmental justice impacts of decisions like that and realizing the industry changes that we're seeing in funeral services, knowing that more people want to be cremated, we want to make sure that that's happening safely in places that are not densely populated neighborhoods," says Conway.
This bill has no impact on current crematoriums, it will only ensure that future crematoriums are placed in areas with minimal impact to the community.
Councilman Conway also hopes that if the legislation passes before Vaughn Greene Funeral Services gets approval from MDOE, it can prevent the funeral home from placing a crematorium right next to the Govans neighborhood.
“So, I ask that the mayor and all the city council people and all of our elected officials get behind Mark’s bill," Chance said.
During Monday night’s city council meeting, a few council members raised their hands to become co-sponsors of Mark Conway’s bill: councilman Ryan Dorsey, Antonio Glover, Zeke Cohen, and councilwoman Odette Ramos.
The Baltimore City Council will have to vote on the bill and the mayor will have to sign it into law in order to prevent an influx of new crematoriums in Baltimore City.
We reached out to Vaughn Greene Funeral Services for a statement and they said, "We have not received a copy of the proposed legislation. We will comment after reviewing it and take the appropriate steps."
