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What St. John's memorial preserve proposes: capacity, phasing and access
Summary
Applicant and staff laid out technical details: the development text sets maximums of 2,850 ground plots and up to 120 columbaria, phases infrastructure in three parts (phase 1 infrastructure and detention, phase 2 memorial spaces, phase 3 long-term southern area), preserves floodplain and trees, and routes funeral traffic through church parking.
The applicant and staff gave specific design and operational commitments at the Planning & Zoning Commission meeting.
Capacity and phasing: The development text lists maximums of 2,850 ground plots and 120 columbaria structures. Applicant representative Dave Guapon said those are maximum theoretical yields and that actual development will be incremental. "This is going to be a very slow, slow process," Guapon said; he estimated it could be decades — even a lifetime — before some southern-phase plots are developed. Staff clarified phase 3 (which contains approximately 1,938 plots) cannot be used until phases 1 and 2 are full.
Access and traffic: The applicant agreed funerals would be routed through the church parking lot and along an internal circulation road the church would construct, to avoid adding trips to Rings Road; staff referenced a traffic memo that estimated funeral-related flows at or below Sunday-mass levels. The development text also limits memorial service hours to roughly 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to avoid peak commute periods.
Design and buffers: The plan preserves roughly 90% of existing on-site tree canopy, locates memorial spaces outside the Kramer Ditch floodplain, and proposes buffers ranging from 7 to 50 feet on the east side (staff recommended widening a narrow 7-foot stretch). Columbaria maximum dimensions are listed in the text (up to 20 feet long, 3 feet wide, 8 feet high) but applicants said the majority will be smaller.
The specifics above were presented to the commission and will be subject to refinement at final development plan (FDP) review if the rezoning proceeds.
