Story posted Thursday, June 18, 2009
Funeral Home Plans Sent Back
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
Plans to build a funeral home a Waterman and Euclid avenues in Arlington Hts. passed the plan commission earlier this year but were recently pulled from a June village board agenda because public notice signs were not properly posted.
The proposed 11,000 square foot Lauterburg Oehler funeral home would be moved from its current site on Northwest Highway to an unoccupied section of one of its cemeteries at Waterman and Euclid, about a mile away.
The matter will be re-heard by the Arlington Hts. Design Commission at an upcoming meeting, said Village Manager Bill Dixon, because funeral home personnel failed to post a required Design Commission meeting notice sign at the site of the proposed project.
Residents living on Waterman have been fighting the plan complaining that when they moved in next to a cemetery they never expected to see a major building development rise up on the grounds of the graveyard.
Residents said they feared increased traffic, problems with parking, possible flooding issues and lights shining in their home from the new building. When the plan commission recently approved the plans they added restrictions on parking, building size and mandated that automatic lighting timers be installed to turn lights off by 10 p.m.
Funeral home representatives claim they need to build on the site because shutting down operations on Northwest Highway, or rehabbing the existing building, would require them to close that building. Using the proposed cemetery site, they claim, would not require them to buy land for the project.
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