Snellville’s opposition to a proposed crematory that would sit a few yards beyond the city’s borders has convinced the applicant to withdraw his plan from Gwinnett County.
“The application received a good bit of opposition,” said Bryan Lackey, director of Gwinnett’s Planning and Development Department. “So he contacted our office and said he no longer wanted to proceed.”
City officials launched a pre-emptive objection after learning county officials received an application from Richard Warren on Nov. 1 for a funeral home with a crematory. The proposed site was a vacant one-story brick building in the 1600 block of Athens Highway, next to a storage facility and across the street from the Summit Chase subdivision along the city’s boundaries.
Snellville City Council members approved a resolution last month declaring “their strong opposition” to the facility and some used personal Facebook accounts to alert nearby residents and remind county commissioners of the plan.
“We know that it’s an issue of concern to our citizens,” Snellville City Manager Russell Treadway said. “And we felt it was important for us to express our concern.”
As a matter of procedure, Warren’s application will appear on the County Commission’s agenda Jan. 24. But Warren, who didn’t show up for a Jan. 3 hearing with Gwinnett’s Planning Commission, said he’s already given up on the proposal.
“It wasn’t worth the fight,” said Warren, a Grayson-based businessman who owns a funeral home in Abbeville County, S.C. “Their decision had been made that it was going to be denied.”
Staffers with the county’s planning department recommended the denial of Warren’s application in a recent report, saying the proposal “to operate a crematory may not be appropriate given the existence of residential neighborhoods along and near the highway corridor.”
Warren countered that he mailed out letters to 63 nearby residents alerting them of the proposal and heard no complaints. He said the funeral home and crematory would have created about 10 full-time jobs.
“Their concerns aren’t even legitimate,” Warren said. “I can tell you that there’s no way in hell that I would ever try to open another business in this county.”
The fight was reminiscent of another one three years ago, when the Cremation Society of the South opened at U.S. 78 and Abington Drive about a mile away from the latest proposed site.
After efforts to stop the crematory from opening proved futile, Snellville revoked the crematory’s operating license and closed the business a month later. The crematory’s owner responded with a lawsuit for unspecified damages and the return of his licenses before eventually reaching a settlement. The property has been empty since and remains up for sale.
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