Oswego Village Board to consider permit request to locate funeral home in winery building

The Oswego Village Board will consider a request next week for a special use permit that would allow a funeral home to operate in the Fox Valley Winery building at 5600 Route 34.

The Bauman Family Funeral Home’s permit request will be on the agenda for final action when board members gather for their next meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16 at Village Hall, 100 Parkers Mill.

The village’s plan and zoning commission voted 6-0 to approve a recommendation in support of granting the permit following a contentious public hearing Feb. 4 at Village Hall.

According to a memo prepared by Rod Zenner, the village’s development services director, “the (winery) building will be remodeled internally to accommodate a funeral home and related uses. Other than signage, no other external changes are proposed. Per the business description, the facility will host funeral services, memorial services, and casket visitations.”

The winery is planning to relocate from the site, according to Zenner.

Zenner confirmed the funeral home owners have no plans to install or operate a crematory on the property.

“The petitioner has agreed to include a restriction in the ordinance to prohibit a crematory at this location. The septic system was built with excess capacity to accommodate the original winery. Chemicals used for the funeral processes are not put into the septic system but collected and removed by specialty waste hauler,” Zenner wrote.

But several nearby homeowners voiced objections to the funeral home locating in the winery building during the Feb. 4 public hearing. Traffic, vehicle parking and the disposal of chemicals by the funeral home were among the concerns expressed.

“I’ve been to a lot of funerals...a funeral can be 10 cars, or it can be 60 cars, or it can be more than that, and you’re going to tell me that Mr. Bauman and Mr. Kramer have some idea of where they’re going to line up these cars? I’m not going to sit in my picture window and watch funeral cars,” Timothy Gburek, a nearby homeowner told the commission. “A funeral home in a highly residential neighborhood is inappropriate.”

However, Toni Morgan, who also lives near the winery building, told the commission that she believes rumors and misinformation had spread about the funeral home on social media.

“This is not somebody from out of town, Matt Bauman (funeral home owner) and his family are going to run a family business, it is going to be a small business,” Morgan said. “This is somebody who is trying his best to tell the truth about what he wants to do with his business. He wants to have a way to be of service to the community, and involve other businesses in that service to the community.”

Bauman and his attorney, Daniel Kramer of Yorkville also spoke at the Feb. 4 hearing.

“There’s really no need to create any traffic to the neighboring residential properties to the south, because we’ve got good access both ways on Route 34,” Kramer said.

“We want this to be a family business,” Bauman said. “When you look at the footprint of the building, the parking, things like that, there’s only so much that we’re going to be able to do at that facility, and we’re okay with that.”

Currently Bauman works at a funeral home that handles 40-50 families a month - but he doesn’t envision that at the Oswego location. “We’re not looking to make that big of an impact,” he told the commission, stating that the building would only allow a certain capacity.