JCC Planning Commission to Review Plan for Mausoleum

By Desiree Parker Saturday, October 01, 2011

 

The James City County Planning Commission will consider St. Bede Catholic Church’s application to add six, 10,000-square-foot mausoleum buildings along Ironbound road, and citizens have already started sharing concerns about the plan.
St. Bede, which is accessible from Ironbound Road, submitted a master plan and Special Use Permit to construct the mausoleum complex that would be phased out over a period of several years on its property. Each building would hold 1,530 crypts, for a total of 9,180 crypts at build out. The project will front Ironbound Road but is separated from it by a 150-foot vegetative buffer. The building nearest to homes in the Meadows subdivision would be the last one constructed.

County staff and the Board of Supervisors have received about 15 letters of concern so far, including comments from Meadows residents and a petition objecting to the plan with 100 signatures.

In the petition letter, citizens object to the size of the buildings, the placement near residential areas, and environmental and “bio-hazard” issues such as “pungent odors, gases, seepage of toxic fluids and contamination of the ground and water table."

“These pungent odors would make it difficult to enjoy outdoor activities on one’s own property,” the letter reads. “Would you want to live next to a massive burial ground? Would you buy a home next to a gigantic burial structure? What would happen if it goes bankrupt?”

One letter received by the county is from church parishioner Frances Dunleavy, who says she is not against the project per se, but she does have some concerns. The concerns include how close one building will be to a residential area, why the church needs so many buildings, parking space plans and landscaping, which will not offer much screening in the fall and winter.

Dunleavy has been a parishioner for 14 years. “I am not opposed to the project per se but I do think the church should be more sensitive to the concerns of our neighbors. I believe the increase of the side yard and reduction in overall size of the project would go a long way to ease their concerns.”

The Planning Commission will consider the application Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. in Building F of the county government complex on Mounts Bay Road. After the Planning Commission considers the plan, it will go to the Board of Supervisors.