Alsip Village Trustees Poised To Vote On Crematorium

ALSIP, IL — Alsip village trustees are poised to vote on allowing a crematorium to be located behind the BaDa Bing Auto Body Shop at their regular board meeting on Monday evening. A super majority vote of at least five yes votes is needed to overturn a unanimous decision by the Alsip planning and zoning commission to deny the petitioner’s request for zoning change to industrial-special use.

Deavolon Cotton Sr., a third-generation funeral director and owner of Legacy Cremation Services, wants to install a crematorium at 11615 S Austin Ave. Cotton owns and operates crematoriums in Chicago Heights and Danville.

According to a transcript of the planning and zoning commission’s Jan. 6 meeting, members and residents raised concerns about carbon emissions, toxins and particulates being injected into the air and wafting over homes west of the proposed crematory.

The National Funeral Directors Association estimates that half of the Americans who die will opt for cremation and are quickly replacing traditional burial. A typical cremation can take up to three hours at temperatures between 900 and 1,800 degrees F.

Cotton proposes to have two state-of-the-art machines for humans and pets. The business will share a building that currently houses the Bada Bing body shop, a countertop business and an engineering abrasives business. The building is located near a waste management site.

The machine will be housed in a fireproof room. The Matthews Power Pak II Plus has the potential to emit under 6 pounds of pollutants, amounting to 10 pounds per year for all the criteria pollutants, less than the minimum spelled out in EPA standards. Legacy Cremations will also have a viewing room for family members, and will sell urns and jewelry.

Cotton told the commission that the machines will undergo an annual EPA inspection, and then every six months the company will come out to inspect its machines and to perform maintenance as needed.

Commission member Jerri-Lynn Kleina asked about particulates and emissions. “A lot of us live west of the crematory,” she said,

The stack, about 21-feet-tall from the ground up, would emit 1 percent of emissions and 1 percent of particulates, that would dissipate within five feet up the stack, which would extend 10 feet above the roofline.

Kleina also quoted a National Geographic article, which stated that cremation causes 534.6 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Cotton called National Geographic “pseudo-science.” He added that similar crematoriums are located in Homewood, Romeoville, Chicago Heights and Rockford that are close to retail stores and supermarkets “that [people] never know what’s going on there.”

“Our particulates are, like I said, minimum to none,” he said. “They are microscopic, so you won’t even smell what is going on.”

The owner of the building was not present at the meeting to make assurances about cleaning up the dilapidated cars around the property. The commissioners also read an email from a resident expressing concerns about the possible toxins effects on the environment and people’s health, including toxins emitted from bodies exposed to radiation treatments.

Another resident said this was the third crematorium to come to the village with a proposal. A funeral home and crematorium were both turned down by the plan commission.

The planning and zoning commission unanimously denied the crematorium plans, 7-0.

The village board meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Monday, at Alsip Village Hall, 4500 W. 123rd St., Alsip.

This story has been updated.