After several nights of testimony over four months, lawyers wrapped up the arguments for and against the crematory before the county's Board of Appeals last night. The board has 60 days to decide the case. Either side could appeal the decision to the Circuit Court.
Much of the testimony focused on technical details about whether the proposed location of Maryland Cremation Services, at 408 Headquarters Drive, is considered to be on an "arterial," "collector" or "local" road.
Funeral homes are allowed only on the larger, busier arterial and collector roads, not on local roads.
The case also deals with whether Maryland Cremation Services would qualify as a funeral establishment.
The business would not be a traditional funeral home, with viewing parlors and arrangements for cemetery burials. It would specialize in no-frills cremation services, with a cremation machine on site.
Maryland Cremation Services ended up before the Board of Appeals after neighbors from the nearby Shipley's Choice community appealed the company's building and plumbing permits.
The building permit was for renovations to the interior of the existing building, while the plumbing permit was for the natural gas line that would power the cremation machine.
"These permits were issued in accordance with normal county procedures," said James Doyle, the attorney for crematory owner Dorota Marshall.
Besides, he said, the Shipley's Choice neighbors wouldn't suffer any special harm as a result of the permits being issued and should have appealed earlier, when the county decided the crematory fit all the zoning rules for the site.
The attorney for the neighbors, John Dougherty, spent a full hour in his closing remarks honing in on the zoning specifics of the case.
He used a projector screen to highlight transcripts.
Dougherty said that not only would Maryland Cremation Services not be a true funeral establishment, but the road it would sit on - Headquarters Drive - is not large enough to accommodate any type of funeral business.
"A crematory is a different animal from a funeral establishment under the law," he said.
Dougherty also said the county's decision to treat the proposed Millersville crematory in way similar to the handling of one in Glen Burnie - which also is in a business park - was flawed.
Board of Appeals members also heard from Deepa Miles, an attorney representing the county government, who urged them to uphold the permits.
The permit appeal is one part of a three-pronged strategy by Shipley's Choice neighbors to block the crematory, which they worry would cause environmental and public health problems.
They failed in an attempt to establish a new county law restricting the operation of crematories.
And they've spoken out against a state air emissions permit that's necessary to operate the cremation machine. Marshall has not yet obtained that permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment.
SOURCE: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2011/11/30-30/Controversial-crematory-case-wraps-up.html
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