PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — Property owners are seeking a special exception permit from the city of Pontiac to turn a 28-acre vacant lot into a Muslim cemetery, but nearby residents are pushing back against the proposal.
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During our "Let's Talk" community event at Dogwoods Kitchen and Bar in Pontiac Wednesday, residents voiced their concerns about the project. The proposed site is located on Vanguard Drive, just off Telegraph Road, sitting directly next to the Stonegate Pointe neighborhood.
Lorraine Lizana, president of the Stonegate Pointe Homeowners Association, who represents the community of more than 400 homes, says she is not in favor of the project.
"Nobody wants a cemetery in their backyard," Lizana said. "We're afraid of enrivonment damage. There's also no benefit to our community, and putting it right next door to us. We also have children, and if there's a lot of traffic, we're afraid for the children's safety as well."
Crystal Williams has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years and shares those concerns.
"It would really be a shame to have a cemetery come to our neighborhood so close to us. I mean, you’re talking $350,000 homes that people have saved for their [whole] lives, and it’s not just like it’s in and out," Williams said.
William Sloane, of the Atlanta-based Sloane Consulting Group, is advising the land owners. He said the initial plan places the burial section in the northwest corner of the lot, furthest from nearby homes and about 600 feet away.
"This religious cemetery is really designed around the idea of very simple burial practice where there would be no embalming, no chemicals in the ground. There would be no vaults, so no major concrete… It is really just a burial into the ground in its simplest form," Sloane said.
Sloane, who has been involved in other cemetery projects in southeast Michigan, says you wouldn't see grave sites at this particular cemetery; everything would be flat or flush with the ground.
"What we’re seeing is a very natural green space that will be the long-term outcome of the site. If you don’t know it’s there, all you’ll see is a beautiful, well-maintained, well-landscaped area," Sloane said. "This is not something that’s going to have 4, 5, 6 hundred burials a year... This is a much lower scale, much simpler concept where we’re just trying to bring in this religious element that, for some communities, has been hard to secure land and space."
Despite the proposed distance and landscaping, residents remain opposed to the development.
"We don’t want neighbors who are looking out of their windows or sitting in their backyard and know that there’s a cemetery right now because that’s not a pleasant thought," Williams said.
Property owners were originally set to meet with the city’s zoning commission next month, but they are pushing the meeting back a couple of months to finalize their design.
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