Crematory plan clears first hurdle in Lake Villa
An advisory panel has given a thumbs-up to an online funeral and crematory service planned for a Lake Villa business park, while imposing several conditions to address concerns from would-be neighbors.
Lake Villa zoning board of appeals members concluded a two-session public hearing late Thursday by agreeing to recommend approval of the business Tadd Linderman would operate in a 1,400-square-foot space at Park Place Business Center, off Route 83. Testimony, deliberation by the zoning panel and public comment covered about eight hours.
Village board trustees are expected to receive the zoning board of appeals' recommendation next month. The board will be asked to grant a conditional-use permit to Linderman's business.
Under his proposal, Linderman would have an office area, a walk-in refrigerator, a preparation room and a cremation unit in the suite at 473 Park Ave. He said the facility would have a strict odor-control system.
However, zoning board of appeals members said they were compelled to attach conditions in an effort to prevent heat generated by the cremation equipment from seeping through a wall and next door into Healy's Winery. Healy's co-owner Archana Dave stressed to the panel that her wine production is temperature sensitive.
"I have so much money invested in this," an emotional Dave told the seven-member zoning board of appeals. "I have so much inventory."
Linderman would be required to install central air conditioning in his suite and to have the cremation equipment near a wall farthest from Dave's winery. Among other conditions for approval, he must use screening whenever a body is brought into the 24-hour-a-day business.
Opponents have voiced concerns, including about the potential for toxic emissions from charred remains and bodily fluid disposal near existing businesses.
Caskets for a funeral elsewhere or a cremation in his building would be sold online, Linderman said. He'd pass on savings to consumers because the online business would have less overhead than traditional brick-and-mortar funeral homes, he said.
If built, the crematory would have an exhaust stack producing particulate matter below Lake Villa's maximum of 1.06 pounds per hour, according to cremation equipment manufacturer Facultatieve Technologies The Americas Inc. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency also must issue a permit.
Facultatieve Technologies national sales manager Ernie Kassof testified Thursday that heat does not escape from his company's cremation units.
"We're a different kind of animal," Kassof said. "We make a cremator, not a modified incinerator."