Village OKs New Funeral Home Despite Objections From Residents

OSWEGO, IL — The former Fox Valley Winery building on Route 34 in Oswego will now have a funeral home after the village board approved a request for a special use permit during its Feb. 16 meeting, despite concerns from nearby homeowners. The Bauman Family Funeral Home will be operating the facility in the building.

According to village documents, the winery is looking to relocate from this site. The building will be remodeled internally to accommodate a funeral home and related uses. The facility will host funeral services, memorial services, and casket visitations. There will be a lounge area for attendees to have snack foods. A catered luncheon will be available and normal business hours will be from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The funeral home will have one full time employee and a few part-time staff as needed. There will also be a preparation room in the facility. There will be no crematory on this site and the petitioner has agreed to include a restriction in the ordinance to prohibit a crematory at this location, according to Rod Zenner, the village’s development services director.

The Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on the proposed special use permit on Feb. 4, during which nine residents addressed their comments. Seven of them were against the proposed use as they were not in favor of the funeral home use.

Timothy Gburek, of Oswego, said he was concerned about the traffic conditions if a funeral home was built near a residential area. He said that the owner, Matthew Bauman was "gracious enough" to visit him at his home to discuss his business plan. Gburek, however, said he is not going to "sit in my picture window and watch funeral cars."

"I've been to a lot of funerals...a funeral can be 10 cars, or it can be 60 cars, or it can be more than that, and you’re going to tell me that Mr. Bauman and Mr. Kramer have some idea of where they’re going to line up these cars?” he said. "A funeral home in a highly residential neighborhood is inappropriate."

Bauman's attorney, Daniel Kramer said that if a large funeral was scheduled that could pose traffic concerns, the owners could arrange for traffic control, or work with the family to hold the service off-site, such as at a church. Bauman said the funeral home is a small, family business and this site allows them to serve a limited capacity. He also said if the business ever outgrows this facility, they would look for a site with more land to build a larger facility.

Kramer stated that the former businesses at this site had greater traffic impact on the area with more days being open and longer business hours.

Another resident, Marek Bak, said he was worried about the placement of the funeral home across the street from his property and chemicals from the funeral processes getting into the septic system.

Zenner said the septic system was built with excess capacity to accommodate the original winery. Chemicals used for the funeral processes are not put into the septic system but collected and removed by specialty waste hauler.

During the hearing, Toni Morgan, one of two who spoke in favor of the funeral home, said she hopes the people on the council are "fair-minded and kind and reasonable and willing to give people a chance to have a business in our community."

Morgan told the board that misinformation had spread about the funeral home on social media, and called the public hearing a "good opportunity" to disprove the stories.

"This is not somebody from out of town, Matt Bauman and his family are going to run a family business, it is going to be a small business," she said. "This is somebody who is trying his best to tell the truth about what he wants to do with his business. He wants to have a way to be of service to the community, and involve other businesses in that service to the community."

Despite earlier concerns, none of the residents raised any objections during the Feb. 16 meeting. However, Zenner still addressed some issues and said the funeral home would post no on-street parking signs on neighborhood streets, install a no left turn sign on West Drive, and plant landscaping along West Drive to screen the parking lot.

Bauman also told the board that based on location and convenience, he anticipates families from Montgomery, Oswego, and Yorkville using the funeral home’s services.

For more news and information like this, subscribe to the Oswego Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. Don't forget to like us on Facebook!