A planned crematory at Duca Funeral Home in Westmont is now on hold after borough officials say the construction moved beyond what was originally approved. Now, owner Frank Duca and his family say they’re looking for a way to move forward with the project.
According to Westmont Borough Manager Veronica Burket, Duca Funeral Home received a permit to build what was described as a storage building earlier this year. But during construction, borough officials say they noticed changes to the project that did not match submitted paperwork and contacted the borough’s zoning officer for further review.
“It was still supposed to be storage only. As time progressed, then there begins to be a flu opening in the roof. That was questioned on why he would need that if he’s just doing storage,” said Burket.
After reaching out to Duca, Burket says the borough learned of his plans to run a crematorium out of the new location. However, Burket says construction had to stop unless Duca petitioned the zoning hearing board for approval.
Burket says the funeral home is located in a residential area, and a similar proposal was denied years ago.
“I’m not a real fan of having a crematory in my neighborhood,” said one resident at Tuesday night’s borough council meeting.
Meanwhile, Duca says he has operated in the area for decades and ran a crematory at his previous location on Walter’s Avenue. Duca says he sold that property in February and by that time, about 90% of his business involved cremations.
Duca says that the construction project in Westmont began as a storage facility project, but he later decided that he wanted to run cremation services there as well. However, he says he did not provide updated plans to the borough until after zoning officials noticed the construction changes.
Duca says he plans to meet with the zoning hearing board to discuss the project and determine whether the crematory can move forward.
For now, a stop-work order remains in place while the zoning process plays out.