After heated public hearing, Chesapeake council approves pet crematorium at Homestead Road, 8‑1

Chesapeake City Council on March 18 approved PLN USE 2024‑031, a conditional use permit requested by Southern Virginia Cremation Services to operate a pet crematorium on a 0.8‑acre portion of a six‑acre parcel at 703 Homestead Road in the Deep Creek planning area. Council adopted the motion to approve the application with the revised stipulations dated 02/25/2025; the motion passed by an 8‑1 vote.

The application prompted more than a dozen members of the public to testify. Applicant Brittany Johnson, who said she and her husband operate Southern Virginia Cremation Services and live in Western Branch, described the business as a “small family‑owned pet cremation business” that receives most of its work via veterinary clinics and home calls rather than walk‑in customers. Johnson told council she and her husband were committed to locating the business in Chesapeake and had worked with planning staff to add landscaping and buffering along Military Highway and Homestead Road.

Opponents—many of them residents of the Sunray Historic Agricultural District—argued the facility would be incompatible with the area’s rural and historic character. Gary Symansky, speaking for the Sunray Farmers Association, called the proposed building “an industrial facility to incinerate animals” and said its stacks and metal facade would be “an indelible mark on our community.” Other neighbors raised similar concerns about visual impacts at the community gateway, the proposed stack heights and the district’s cultural and historic character.

Planning staff told council the item had been continued from February and that the original staff recommendation had been denial because the plan lacked adequate screening to preserve the visual character of the Homestead Road approach to the Sunray district. Staff said the applicant revised the site plan, removed front parking, expanded the landscape buffer, added a split‑rail fence and submitted a planting schedule that includes taller canopy plants and intermediate understory plantings; based on those changes staff recommended approval with the revised stipulations dated 02/25/2025.

Council members questioned applicants and staff about air permits and visibility. Staff and the applicant said the crematorium would require applicable federal and state air permits (the applicant cited the Virginia DEQ visual emissions test known as a VEE), and the applicant said modern crematory machines are designed to produce no visible emissions in normal operation, with only occasional puffs allowed under DEQ rules at startup. The applicant described the proposed planting as a mix of evergreen and deciduous screening, including eastern red cedar and sweetbay magnolia planted at 12–14 feet in height in the outer row and intermediate plantings of 6–8 feet to provide layered screening.

After public testimony and staff responses, Council Member Ritter moved to approve the conditional use with the staff stipulations dated March 3, 2025; Council Member Newans seconded. The motion passed by an 8‑1 vote. The record does not specify the individual “no” vote.

What this means: The approval allows Southern Virginia Cremation Services to locate the pet‑crematorium operation on the 0.8‑acre portion of the parcel subject to the revised stipulations including the enhanced landscape buffer, split‑rail fence and other site controls; the applicant must secure required state and federal air permits before operating.