As of the Board of Adjustment meeting on March 30, an application permitting both a use variance and a site plan for a funeral home was approved. The twofold approval allows Anthony Bongarzone to build and run a funeral home in an otherwise residential zone comprised of 1.6 acres off Shafto Road, backing into the Hovnanian Hyde Park townhouse development.

Residential zones also permit the building of utilities (such as sewer), schools and churches.

According to officials, this application is likened more to that of a church since nowhere in borough ordinances is there mention of how to treat zoning for a funeral home.

Bongarzone, borough officials and zoning officials concurred that the similarities are salient enough, the rationale being that a church is a place of worship and a funeral home is a place in which people memorialize.

Of all potential permitted uses in a residential zone, this was thought to be the least disruptive from the borough’s perspective.

From a planning perspective, even a church would be more "service-intense," bustling with traffic-generating activity. Mention was made of the several faith services usually held throughout weekends (and sometimes on weekdays), not to mention religious instruction classes, bingo and a host of other church-sponsored functions.

Bongarzone, who said he will personally operate the funeral home, commented on the anticipated lack of activity it will generate. He said that typically there aren’t many funerals per year and that he would be happy to get 70 funerals in any given year.

Though many did not object to the spiritual aspect, there were also those who found it objectionable for reasons other than traffic and the tearing down of trees.

The wife of resident Darcy Lee, who lives in the Hyde Park development with her husband, Darcy Lee, read from a prepared statement at the hearing stating that she and her husband, who are from Hong Kong, would probably have no other choice but to move once construction starts. Her reason: feng shui, an ancient Chinese science predicated on the advantages garnered by living in harmony with the intangible forces of nature. As practitioners of feng shui, the Lees have gone through great pains to find the proper location for a home and then position everything in it so that all is balanced precisely with their environment.

According to the feng shui doctrine, disruption of the proper orientation of one’s home could bring misfortune in life.

Though the Lees’ concerns were met with much respect, the decision regarding the funeral home was OK’d.

In a later interview, Borough Administrator Anthony Muscillo said the issue of feng shui has come up in other cases of pending approval.

In one instance, he said, a resident had concerns about negative spirits being harbored in nearby trees.

Trees were another shady issue in the case of the funeral home.

Some of the opposing residents wanted the trees in the now-wooded area where the funeral home will be located to stay just where they are. According to some residents, Hovnanian, the developer of Hyde Park, had led people who bought in the development to believe that the neighboring wooded area would stay that way.

Other objectors wanted to know how they would explain the presence of a funeral home to children.