Baltimore residents fighting back over proposed crematorium in their neighborhood
BALTIMORE - There is a three-year-long controversy in a North Baltimore neighborhood over plans to build a crematorium.
"Our issue is simply location," York Road Partnership member Sandi McFadden said. "We just feel it is in the wrong place."
Dozens of community members attended a meeting hosted by the Maryland Department of the Environment on Wednesday to voice their concerns over the project.
"We're trying to avoid having an incinerator and all of the toxic air pollution that comes with an incinerator being put into a residential neighborhood," York Road Partnership member Lisa Polyak said.
Vaughn Greene Funeral Services, which has four locations in our area, wants to build the crematorium near its location on York Road.
The company first applied for a permit in June of 2020.
Since then, several community members of the York Road Partnership have fought the plans. They've even taken legal action, challenging the zoning.
A judge sided with the funeral home and now the Partnership is appealing.
"We're really worried about all the work that's been put into stabilizing the new York Road Corridor and what does this mean to destabilize," Polyak said.
The community members also have support from their elected leaders.
"We're going to do everything we can to make it clear to MDE that this is not what we want in our neighborhood," Baltimore City Councilmember Mark Conway said.
At the meeting, MDE leaders said they will begin deciding if they will grant the permit to Vaughn Greene Funeral Services, but they did not give a timeline.
Until a decision is made, community members plan continue to voice their concerns.
"We really care about this neighborhood," McFadden said. "We care not only about the short-term, but the long term-effects of what might happen when there is that kind of emission coming consistently day after day, week after week and year after year."
We reached out to Vaughn Greene Funeral Services for comment. We are waiting to hear back.
