Florissant City Council Approves Pet Cemetery Expansion

While a number of discussions continued over , the Florissant City Council approved a special use permit in a residential zoned area for the cemetery.

The ordinance sets a precedent for special use permits to be allowed in residentially zoned areas in the

Ward 6 Councilman Pat Stinnett brought up the point that while he’s in support of the pet cemetery’s expansion, he didn’t support the procedure to get the procedure to make the expansion happen.

Previously, the pet cemetery’s owner, Rose Darnell, had sought to have the land, #115 and #7 N. Highway 67, rezoned to a business district and have a special use permit for that. She later changed her request following a city council public hearing to have the land remain a R-4, residential zone, and have a special use permit to allow for the business.

“We’re going to open the floodgates to more requests,” Stinnett said. “I’m in favor of the project, but opposed to the procedures.”

He motioned to have the two bills pertaining to the pet cemetery continued until the council could discuss during its July 31 public work session. The motion failed.

Ward 3 Councilman Joe Eagan, who has the pet cemetery in his ward, said that in consulting with , it would not open the floodgates, and he thought the rezoning of a B-3, a type of business district, could cause more potential problems.

Hessel said that cemeteries, pet or human, can be a special permitted use in a B-3, but there’s nothing wrong with doing it in a R-4. 

Resident John Engelmeyer spoke before the final vote and pointed out he had made a similar request to the council the previous year, and he had been turned down. He said he would re-file the paperwork for his request if the ordinance was passed.

The Council approved both bills, 8840 and 8842, 5-4.

Darnell, who said she started this application process in December, said she was happy to done and ready for the next step in cleaning up the land.