Citizens disappointed with City’s response to Crematorium adjacent to subdivision
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
Over 25 Eagle Pass citizens expressed their disappointment of the City of Eagle Pass’ response to their complaint against the building and permitting of a crematorium by a local funeral home on El Indio Highway adjacent to a large residential subdivision at the June 23, 2015 meeting of the Eagle Pass City Council.
During the Citizens Communication agenda, Norma Negrete, a concerned citizen and an advocate against the crematorium, stated that the City of Eagle Pass and its City Council was sending a bad message to other people and businesses according to their response to the citizens request to investigate the unlawful permitting of the controversial crematorium. Negrete stated that the City of Eagle Pass is basically telling people that if you have money or wealth, you can come to Eagle Pass and buy a real property at a very reasonable price and establish a crematorium without any regulation or permitting requirements if the property is located in a B-1 neighborhood, business district or in a general business district zoning area within the city limits.
“In fact, your crematorium unit may be a reconstructed one, it doesn’t have to be new. And the only thing you have to do is apply for a building permit and a license from the funeral home commission and also you can have an tax exemption,” said Negrete to City Council.
“Now you can tell me that is not the case. If that is not what it is, it sure is what is being reflected. By us expressing our case and the unconformity that we have due to the installation of the crematory in our area, the way that we have been treated, the way that you all have answered us, the response that we have received from the city and city council is unnerving. Our concern is if that is the way that the owners of the crematory were allowed to establish the crematorium then other people from the city or other places will come and establish themselves in our community with no questions asked. Many people say that the crematorium is not damaging but because such operation is not behind their homes. The way that it has gone, you all are establishing a precedent for another crematorium to come and establish itself in other people’s backyards. That is the message that you are sending about Eagle Pass. That is what we’re reflecting as a city,” added Negrete.
Local community advocate, Juanita Martinez, told the City Council that “I think it is important to support them and there is evidence that having a crematorium in your backyard is not conducive to good health for the children, the people in that neighborhood. I think they have a very, very good reason to be opposed to the crematorium.” Martinez requested City Council to support its local concerned citizens in opposition to the controversial crematorium.
The concerned citizens first addressed the Eagle Pass City Council at the February 19, 2015 meeting, bringing to their attention concerns regarding the inappropriate procedures used to permit the building of the crematorium and the health and environmental dangers posed by said crematory to the citizens of Eagle Pass, particularly to the adjacent subdivision.
The concerned citizens also raised the lack of notice provided to adjacent property owners by the City of the proposed construction of the controversial crematorium as is customary of the City with other building or zoning issues.
The citizen’s original complaint letter to the City Council cited that the “location and use for this location which is close to a residential zoned area if allowed to operate will be a nuisance and will have a significant impact on the properties and citizens around the crematory. It will further deny citizens’ enjoying our homes, affecting our quality of life and negatively affecting our property values. b) That we are knowledgeable about the State of Texas Constitutional Land Use, but not at the expense or harm of surrounding property owners and by creating a nuisance. The crematory unit will cause our property values to decrease and our area will be the first one to be contaminated with toxins from the process used to cremate cadavers. It will only take a few months to see the decrease in real estate value and the increase of contamination, sickness and disease.”
Another major concern of the citizens group is the emission of Mercury into the air and which may escape from the crematorium potentially causing harm to citizens in close proximity to the crematorium.
The citizens group approached their duly elected representatives, the City Council, to investigate the lack of procedures and/or law followed by the City Administration in approving the controversial crematorium building permit. Mayor Ramsey English Cantu and Councilwoman Gloria E. Hernandez met with the concerned citizens to hear their complaints and reasoning, as well.
The City of Eagle Pass through its City Attorney, Heriberto Morales of Langley & Banack, has issued two written letters to the concerned citizens replying that the City had not found any viable reason or violation of any local ordinances to revoke the City’s building permit issued to the local funeral home to construct the crematorium.
The first letter dated March 24, 2015 by City Attorney Heriberto Morales advises the concerned citizens group that the City did not find any legal reason or violation of any ordinance to revoke the building permit issued by the City to build the crematorium. Morales also told the group that “Because of your letter’s threat of possible litigation, I respectfully ask that you forward any future correspondence as it relates to this matter, directly to my office.”
Dissatisfied and disappointed with the City’s response, the concerned citizens group addressed City Council again, a second time, through a letter dated April 27, 2015 meeting and raised new issues concerning the interpretation of a city ordinance affecting animal crematoriums and its impact on the funeral home’s crematorium on El Indio Highway. Some concerned citizens also have raised the possible tampering of the City’s building permit with several discrepancies noted on the original permit.
The City Council instructed City Attorney Heriberto Morales to meet with the citizens and draft a response to the new issues raised by their April 27, 2015 letter regarding non-compliance with existing city ordinances.
The second meeting between City Attorney Heriberto Morales and representatives of the concerned citizens never materialized because Morales requested that no audio or video recordings of their meeting would be allowed.
Consequently, City Attorney Heriberto Morales of Langley & Banack sent a second response letter dated June 18, 2015 to the concerned citizens stating that the City of Eagle Pass’ legal position did not change and it has a different interpretation of the cited city ordinance.
Morales stated in his letter that “There is a fundamental difference of opinion between the city’s positions on whether a crematorium is a permitted use in the B3 general business district area adjacent to a funeral home and your position that crematoriums are prohibited, because it is not defined nor specifically mentioned under the city ordinance.”
Morales further stated that the City of Eagle Pass respectfully disagrees with the citizen’s characterization that the decision was made arbitrarily or that the industrial use classification is a better fit.
Despite their best efforts to address their publicly elected representatives, the concerned citizens expressed disappointment in the City Council and the City of Eagle Pass’ failure to genuinely address the procedural and legal issues raised by them in the issuance of the building permit of the crematorium. The group will meet with its members and determine what they want to do next, if anything.
