Residents Uneasy About Allowing Crematorium Near Schools and Homes

A bitter fight over a century-old scrap of legislation will have to wait another month, after the Alameda County Planning Commission again tabled a proposal that has pitted concerned San Lorenzo residents against one of the community's oldest family-owned businesses. 

The battle is over a multi-chamber crematorium that Grissom's Mortuary has long hoped to add to its funeral home on East Lewelling Boulevard.

With the recession putting the cost of a grave burial out of reach for many, the local demand for cremation, which is less expensive, has spiked. (Nearly half of all Californians who died in 2008 were cremated, and anecdotal evidence suggests those numbers continue to rise). Grissom's, which currently outsources cremation services to a mortuary in Fremont, saw a growing need and hoped to fill it.

But a statute in the county general ordinance code, written in 1908, bars cremations from taking place within 300 feet of an existing school or residence. Though the planning department supports a change in the law, neighbors say they weren't properly consulted, and they fear potential health effects from the crematorium's effluence.

San Lorenzo High School, St. John's Catholic School and Colonial Acres Elementary School are all located within 1,000 feet of the mortuary. San Lorenzo and St. John's are within 300 feet.

"How could they make this exception with so many schools so close?" said Dan Kapler, one of about a half a dozen neighbors who spoke in opposition to the plan at the Oct. 4 commission meeting in Hayward. "It just doesn't show a concern for public safety." 

The planning commission voted unanimously to postpone its decision until after members could take a field trip to a working crematorium in the area. 

If the commission decides to recommend changing the ordinance, the issue could go before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors at its Nov. 9 meeting.

"Technologies have changed, regulation has become more strict, and it appears that cremation units could be allowed within areas that are now urbanized that are surrounded by residential uses," said Rodrigo Orduña, senior planner with the department. "We want to give the businesses the opportunity to prove that their cremation units would be safe."

Though speakers touched on property values and a general sense of unease with the project, much of the debate centered on the small levels of known carcinogens—including hexavalent chromium—and asthma triggers that would be released by the crematorium's flue.

"There was one item that was seven times over the trigger limit for asthma, but they said because we cannot identify the particular source for any individual's asthma, it's insignificant," said Joseph Parker, who lives nearby. "That's like firing your pistol in the air on Fourth of July and saying it's not significant to the person whose head it lands on three blocks away."

In fact, several existing county crematoria were built in violation of the little-known statute. The planning department estimates that 70 percent of local cremation units operate within 300 feet of an Alameda County residence or school. Grissom's project had already been approved when the law was discovered.

"We ran into this 100-year-old ordinance that has never been amended or edited or used, let alone challenged," said Bill Lambert, the county planning director. "[Potential health effects have] been studied up, down and sideways, and the fact is we can't find anything wrong."

Grissom's owner Lisa Wyrabkiewicz said she understands her neighbors' anxiety, but after 30 months of debate and intensive study, it is time to move forward.

"It's the heebie-jeebies,"  Wyrabkiewicz said. "I'm going to be at that facility the bulk of every week of every year. If I had any belief that this would be hazardous, why would I want to jeopardize myself, my friends, my family?"

But for Lois Moser, a 50-year resident of the community, the debate comes down to peace of mind. 

"It made me very concerned because Colonial Acres is all children, and I don't feel you can tell me that some of that pollution doesn't come down on the ground," Moser said. "I want to be cremated, but I don't want to feel as though part of me might land on a child."