Petition circulating to prevent crematorium in residential Surrey neighbourhood

A petition to prevent a crematorium from being built in a residential area in Surrey has gathered momentum online.

The owners of a funeral home and crematorium in Delta have applied to build a similar business in Tynehead. According to petition organizers, the proposed facility would take up 12 acres, which would have an “enormous” negative impact on the neighbourhood.

There are several reasons to oppose the project, according to the petition.

Crematoriums emit particulates, it says, and are an environmental hazard.

“The proposed location is across the street from Bothwell Park, backs directly onto the salmon spawning Serpentine River, and is adjacent to the Agricultural Land Reserve,” the petition says.

“Any particulate emissions and run-off will be deposited directly into the sensitive surroundings.”

Coun. Linda Annis says there are many steps before the project gets the green light.

“I believe in January, the applicant of the property will be meeting with all the local residents and having an open house so they can express their concerns to them,” Annis said.

“After that, it will come to council for first and second reading, and then again, the residents of Surrey will have another opportunity to appear before council at our public hearing and speak to the issue whether they’re in favour of it or whether they’re opposed to it.”

Annis agrees that this type of business does not belong in a residential neighbourhood, although she says there is a need for it.

“We need to be looking at our commercial land and light industrial,” she said. “That’s where it belongs.”

She says the applicant — Five Rivers, the owner of the Riverside Funeral Home and Crematorium — has its existing facility in a “great location” for that type of building.

“We need to find a similar location like that,” she said.

Local resident Raj Khatar wants to know why the company chose this specific property when there is already industrial land zoned for this use.

“We are seriously concerned about what the city is doing here in trying to push a project through that has so many concerns and has been directly noted by their own city staff and engineers that have come out against this procedure,” Khatar said.

“This specific piece of land is residentially zoned surrounded by ALR, so we are really asking why in a housing crisis are we putting a commercial hazardous material zone businesses right smack in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.”

Annis says another issue is that the area has limited road access.

“It’s a single traffic lane, and there is concern for the increase of traffic, especially for kids,” she said.

The petition has more than 1,700 signatures.

1130 NewsRadio has reached out to Five Rivers for comment on the petition.

With files from Raynaldo Suarez and Angela Bower.