By Stephen Appezzato

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MIDDLETOWN – The township planning board denied Fair View Cemetery’s proposal to build a crematorium last week, ending a series of hearings that drew packed meeting rooms and prompted an outpouring of residents’ concerns.

The Aug. 6 vote was the final hearing for the application, which was filed earlier this year. Fair View sought minor site plan approval and an additional use permit for a 1,500-square-foot crematory on an undeveloped parcel bordering Oak Hill Road, Normandy Road and the NJ Transit train tracks.

Cemetery representatives previously testified the facility was needed due to the growing popularity of cremations and finite space at its main grounds on Route 35. Fair View has owned the wooded parcel and left it mostly undeveloped since the 1930s.
At a hearing in February, cemetery representatives said 65% of burials at Fair View are now cremations, representing a shift in burial practices across the country, and of the 25 crematories in New Jersey, the closest to the area is in Neptune.
Over the course of multiple meetings, residents gathered at town hall to oppose the plan, citing concerns ranging from air pollution and mercury emissions to fire hazards, water contamination and the loss of property value.

Ahead of the planning board’s vote last week, one mother said her 18-month-old daughter was born with underdeveloped lungs and has chronic lung disease. “We feel incredibly lucky to live in such a safe, healthy and child-friendly environment,” she said. “So it goes without saying that the idea of a crematorium being built in our backyard has us paralyzed with fear. The health and safety of every local child will be placed at risk as a result of this proposal, whether they live here or go to the nearby parks,” she said.

Another resident, Michael Vitale, said he was concerned about his well water.

“My main concern is that I am one of seven houses on Oak Hill Road that has well water,” he said. He noted a prior discussion about toxins from the cremation process potentially seeping into the ground. “My concern is that the toxins could reach the drinking well water,” Vitale said.

Joseph Verga, another neighbor, urged the board to consider environmental safety as the primary is-sue.

“Yes, there’s a fire hazard, which has been raised, but the environmental issue in my mind overshadows the fire hazard issue,” Verga said. “The applicant offered you the following evidence: their expert is a salesman who stands to make $350,000 for his company for the sale of the crematorium. He cares nothing for this town. This town means nothing. For him, it’s a sale,” he said.

“As a parent, I am strongly opposed to the crematorium,” another resident said. “As someone who cares about the environment, I am strongly opposed to the crematorium.” Citing a Penn State study showing property values decline near crematories, another resident told the board, “There’s a potential impact to the town of $200,000 per year in property tax loss” for roughly 300 homes within a half-mile of the proposed site. “That is not insignificant. This just seems like a very poor decision in the short term,” he said.
“I do not want to see my life or my neighbors’ lives shortened because of this poison. It’s a reality; it does eventually shorten your life,” resident Diane Trugman said.

According to a 2020 paper published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health studying human health risk from mercury emissions at crematoriums, which accounted for more than 7% of total mercury emissions in British Columbia, “Crematoriums are sources of air pollution including mercury emission and may cause plausibly subtle chronic health effects due to long-term low-dose exposure.”

But the study also noted there was “no indication that ground-level exposures to elemental mercury vapour from crematoriums poses a significant risk to human health.”

Fair View’s Rebuttal

Following the lengthy public comment, attorney John Giunco, who represents the cemetery, told the board his clients “are not in the business of trying to hurt anyone.”

“They went about a process, used throughout the United States and throughout New Jersey for the disposal of human bodies when we die,” he said.

Giunco said the industry is highly regulated and the cemetery, in operation for more than a century, met all municipal and state standards without needing variances.

In response to concerns over the crematory’s proximity to the street at a previous hearing, Fair View offered to move the proposed building northeast and “practically tripled the buffering” to reduce visibility. Giunco emphasized crematories are common in residential zones, with 21 of 24 in New Jersey located within existing cemeteries.

“The design of this system and the improvements over the years of crematory operations have eliminated and minimized those impacts,” Giunco said. “It’s not like we’re going to have a bonfire or a grill and start roasting some folks out back,” he said, using hyperbole to convey his point.

Giunco also noted Fair View “has gone about this process in exactly the way that is prescribed for this industry,” meeting state regulations and complying with Middletown’s ordinances.

“We’ve provided a site plan that seeks no variances and we’ve offered to expand it and amend it” if needed, Giunco said.

Board Decision

When it came time to vote on the crematorium, board members made a motion to deny it, ultimately shooting down Fair View’s application.

Planning board and township committee member Kevin Settembrino cited a proposed state law, S4008, that would ban crematories within 1,000 feet of schools, residences or certain recreation areas. While the bill has not advanced, he noted it has bipartisan support.

“Although I try very hard to balance the rights of the property owner and the developer with the impact to the residents, there is no possible way that I can vote for or recommend to approve this application,” Settembrino said.

“I’m appointed to this planning board, I get elected by you each and every time, and I’m here to represent everyone that’s here, and there’s no way that I can foresee approving this,” he said. Middletown’s planning board always features a township committee liaison among its members.

Fair View’s application was not its first bid to construct a crematorium; in 2017, the cemetery received conditional planning board approval to build a crematorium on its main grounds bordering Route 35, but was later denied by the township’s zoning board. The cemetery filed a legal complaint in response, which was tried in 2018 and ultimately decided in the zoning board’s favor in 2023.

The article originally appeared in the August 14 – 20, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.