I will definitely be recommending this location to more people. I know I will be well taken care of in the future. I can't thank Alena, Edwin and everyone at Glen Haven for their incredible customer service. I ended going with a niche inside of the Tranquil Oaks building. I appreciated her explanation and the fact that they are actively working on resolving the issue. The grass definitely needs tending to but Alena explained the irrigation is being worked on and that it the grass will be back green and beautiful soon. I will admit at first I wasn't wild about the area. I can't imagine what it likes to work outside and taking care of such a beautiful cemetery.Īlena walked me around their Tranquil Oaks area. Edwin, the Foreman, stopped to talk to Alena briefly and before we drove off he kindly offered us both cold waters. She took me on a park tour and we explored all my options.Īs we drove through the cemetery I noticed all the grounds guys were working really hard, hats off to them, it must have felt like it was 100 degrees outside. I got sense that she genuinely cares when talking to her families. Alena was incredible, thorough, and very knowledgeable. I recently went to Glen Haven looking to buy a plot for myself. Please consider supporting local journalism by purchasing a digital subscription to the Orlando Sentinel. With the code change denial, there was no need for commissioners to consider the second request at a meeting that lasted nearly eight hours. “I think this is a great use for the property,” Leary said, “however, I don’t believe that’s what the people who signed up for that neighborhood bought into.” At one point, there was a brief discussion of tabling the issue for another meeting before Mayor Steve Leary squashed the idea and called for a vote. “You won’t see it from the road.”Ĭommissioners said they were torn over the request and wished cemetery officials and neighbors could find a way to compromise. “It’s 44 acres and all the way back is a long ways,” Glassinger said. Glassinger put a picture she took of the entrance to the cemetery property on an overhead projector and said most people don’t notice the existing building until they’re inside the gates and the view likely wouldn’t be obstructed by the proposed building either. However, only Chantilly Avenue resident Darlene Glassinger stood up at the meeting to speak. “This is a very reasonable request despite what neighbors say.”Ĭoney presented documents to commissioners containing signatures from 122 households in the area that showed support of the cemetery’s plans. “That’s the Winter Park way of how you fight development,” Johnston said. “It’s not 30 cars over 4 1/2 miles, it’s a very, very short, no sidewalks, no anything.”Ĭemetery officials tried to rebut arguments by residents, telling commissioners that simply choosing not to believe information like a traffic study doesn’t make it untrue. “They’re talking about this increase on two blocks,” Hurley said. “You’re looking for a rate of return on that.”Ĭayce Hurley, whose home on Lafayette Avenue is up for sale, told commissioners three prospective buyers were discouraged by the expected traffic a funeral home would bring. “Nobody invests $2.5 million for the status quo,” Temple Drive resident Dinos Constantine said. The crux of resident objections is that the entrance, which is on the west side of the property, can only be accessed from Chantilly Avenue or Temple Drive through Place Vendome, which are surrounded by dozens of homes.Ī traffic study of the area concluded that the average daily traffic volume would increase less than 5%, or about an extra 30 cars a day, with the addition of a funeral home.īut many residents said they weren’t buying that cemetery officials would spend millions of dollars for a funeral home without an expectation of increased business, creating an influx of traffic. “This is a $2.5 million structure replacing a dumpy 50-year-old building.” “We truly believe that a beautiful funeral home to better serve families, especially when half of them are already coming to the cemetery, is completely and totally appropriate,” Coney said. Lisa Coney, Baldwin Fairchild director of cemetery compliance, said having the funeral home on site at the 64-year-old cemetery would make the burial process easier on grieving families. Palm Cemetery and Pineywood Cemetery are city-owned and managed. Entrance to Glen Haven Memorial Park in Winter Park.Ĭity planning staffers noted that giving a nod to Glen Haven’s application wouldn’t set a precedent because it is the only private cemetery in the city.
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