As Councilman Mark Conway sees it, his bill to regulate crematoriums in Baltimore takes a middle path.

It would prohibit future crematoriums from being operated in parts of Baltimore zoned C-2, meaning areas where small businesses can operate near residences.

Court rulings siding with a funeral home company trying to put a human crematorium in Conway’s district – less than 200 feet from the closest home – have made it clear that any of Baltimore’s 46 funeral homes could install one onsite.

“We realized that there is a growing need for cremations,” Conway said at a public hearing on his bill, pointing out that it “grandfathers in” the city’s existing crematorium and allows funeral homes, which are also allowed in C-3 and C-4 zoning districts, to install them.

“Does it make sense to have cremations in our neighborhoods next to our homes, next to our businesses?” Conway said, addressing the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.

“Do you think that a restaurant would do well with a crematorium across the street? I would think not,” he continued.

“When you bought your home 10 years ago, does that affect your property values? Does that affect your your health and welfare? I think it does.”

• Latest effort to stop the York Road crematorium – a zoning change? (10/1/24)

Conway’s remarks came at the start of a hearing that also drew testimony from funeral home operators.

Two of them made a racial disparity argument against the bill, which would prohibit cremation at the 18 funeral homes now operating in the city’s C-2 zones.

“Historically, African American funeral homes have been located in the center of African American residential communities,” said Victor March, president and CEO of March Funeral Homes, which has six locations in Maryland and operates its own crematorium in Laurel outside the city.

March acknowledged that other city funeral homes are already offering cremation services by outsourcing the job to another company. But he complained that having to do so increases the costs and may turn off customers who prefer the funeral home to maintain custody of the body.

Conway’s bill, he asserted “disproportionately impacts the economic viability of African American funeral homes in Baltimore.”

Impact on Residents

Cindy Camp, of the Govans neighborhood, arguing for the bill, said March’s racial disparity argument has it backwards.

What about the disproportionate impact of crematoriums on Black residents, people like her and her family who will be more likely, under the current zoning, to have to co-exist with these facilities in densely settled C-2 neighborhoods?

“When I look around here and I see all these funeral home owners and all the excuses they make for why a crematorium should be in my community, has anybody even come to visit or ask us anything?” said Camp, who lives within 200 feet of  the proposed crematorium at Vaughn Greene Funeral Home’s 4905 York Road location.

“We’re in marginalized communities where people can’t afford to move out,” said Camp, who shares a home with her grandchildren and mother. “My mom cannot afford to live anywhere else, she’s 89 years old.”

“We’re in marginalized communities where people can’t afford to move out”  – resident Cindy Camp.

Making a similar argument was environmental engineer Lisa Polyak, who has been assisting the York Road Partnership in its fight against Vaughn Greene and has previously testified that the process produces health-harming pollutants.

Polyak reminded the audience about “environmental justice scores,” which factor in race, income and other demographics and are higher in areas with more environmental hazards and serious health problems.

Conway’s 4th District “has an environmental justice score of 95,” Polyak said, “meaning the citizens who live in that district are more vulnerable from a health standpoint than 95% of the citizens of Maryland.”

She also warned “nothing in the code currently prohibits funeral home owners in other districts from petitioning for the right to place a crematory, no matter what their zoning is.”

“I think every member here today has at least two or more funeral homes in their district,” Polyak added.

“Economics have changed”

Pondering the asthma suffered by children she knows who are as young as eight years old, Donna Blackwell, of the Winston Govans Neighborhood Association, urged lawmakers to approve the bill.

“Imagine a world where our children’s children’s children will be able to breathe clean air,” she said.

“It’s no longer a taboo to burn up mother”  – Erich March, of March Funeral Homes.

Erich March, general manager of March Funeral Homes, dismissed those health concerns as “emotion.”

“The human body is 80% water. We are literally burning up water,” he said, also noting that “the economics” of cremation have changed because the process has become more accepted among Black customers.

“It’s no longer a taboo to burn up mother.”

Given that trend, the limits imposed by bill 24-0599 would be a way to protect city residents in the future, Conway said, in concluding remarks.

“We should be thinking about what this means for the next hundred years,” he said. “We have to resolve this issue.”