City Council votes to rezone property for Carr-Yager funeral home

COLUMBIA — The abandoned Church of God buildings on the corner of East Texas and North Garth avenues will finally become a funeral home, chapel and mortuary, thanks to the unanimous City Council decision on Monday night to rezone the property.

The rezoning from R-1 (single family residential) to C-P (planned commercial) allows Carr-Yager Funeral Home company to turn the abandoned church and residential buildings into a funeral home and mortuary with no crematory.

The Parkade Neighborhood Association has been the sole public voice in the discussion about the rezoning, although no representative spoke at Monday's meeting. Spokesman Peter Anger identified his concerns in a previous Missourian interview.

"I'm inclined to think that what degrades a neighborhood is putting (commercial) zoning right next to residential without the buffer," he said. Anger added that he had no problem with the funeral home itself, just the commercial zone's proximity to residential areas.

Dan Simon, representing both Church of God and Carr-Yager at Monday's meeting, assured the council that this fear was based on a "misunderstanding," since the only possible uses for the land under the new zoning are the same as the old zoning, plus one: a funeral home without a crematory. Planned commercial zoning requires that anyone interested in changing the use of the land must request a hearing before the City Council.

Simon suggested at the meeting that the council could change the zoning to office zoning and include the use for a funeral home without a crematory, since the commercial zoning caused some people in the neighborhood concern. The council decided to discuss the issue of office zoning at a later date.