The hubbub over a request to establish a crematorium in downtown McComb subsided to virtual silence Tuesday when the city board unanimously passed an amendment to part of its zoning ordinance.
The board changed the permitted uses under the C-2 Highway Commercial District by adding “crematory” to the list.
The C-2 designation already allowed for funeral homes and mausoleums — including Hartman-Jones on Delaware Avenue. Owner Jason Jones sought the change to the ordinance so he could build a crematorium on the funeral home property.
Jones did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.
The request to allow crematoriums in the commercial district caught some of the funeral home’s neighbors off guard and led City Judge Brandon Frazier, whose office is south of the funeral home on Scott Drive, to protest the proposal during the board’s April 2 work session.
The issue was discussed again at the April 16 work session, with Jones telling selectmen that nearby property owners had been notified and raised no objections.
Frazier, however, said some of the occupants of those properties had not been made aware of the proposal until he contacted them, and some of them had reservations.
At the May 21 work session, Jones said he had asked Frazier for input on the matter, and also that he had asked about locating the crematorium in Gateway Industrial Park. Economic developer Jill Busby said she had not heard from Jones.
