Hope and Sons has applied for resource consent to install the cremator at its business on the corner of Andersons Bay Rd and Oxford St. KFC, Woolworths and residential property are on nearby or neighbouring properties.
KFC owner Restaurant Brands was not aware of the consent application, a spokeswoman said, but would be looking into the matter, while a Progressive Enterprises spokeswoman gave the same response.
Neighbours spoken to yesterday said they were not too worried at the prospect of living next door to a cremator, but some were concerned about the effect on property prices.
Hope and Sons provided about half the business for the Dunedin City Council facility and if the application was successful, it would have an effect, council botanic garden and cemeteries team leader Alan Matchett said.
Losing half would mean the council "would have to consider the impact on our operations".
The council last year spent $432,000 on a new cremator.
Hope and Sons funeral director Michael Hope said the plan was an investment and the company hoped to make a return.
"It provides a better, competitive market in Dunedin."
The company had applied to install a cremator in 1988 and Woolworths appealed.
The proposal was withdrawn before the issue was resolved.
The technology had improved "so much", Mr Hope said.
Privately-owned cremators were common throughout New Zealand, including in Alexandra, Oamaru, Timaru and Ashburton. New technology meant there were no visible emissions from cremators apart from a heat haze, Mr Hope said.
"From that point of view, people won't even be aware that it's there."
The company acknowledged, though, in its application, that some people might consider the concept of cremation disagreeable, and the thought of cremations on the site could give rise to adverse psychological effects.
It said the cremator was designed for "sensitive areas".
It would be housed in an existing building, with a maximum of six cremations a day.
They would result in a discharge to the air, and an application for consent for that activity had been lodged with the Otago Regional Council.
City council resource consents manager Alan Worthington said it had not been decided if a commissioner would be used rather than a councillor on the hearings panel, because of the council's involvement, but the hearing would be a joint one with both councils represented.
The application said the site was "split-zoned", with both industrial and residential zoning.
Under the city council's district plan, funeral directors were listed as community support activities, but the application said the cremator could equally fall within the definition of industrial activity, which permitted the "processing of goods".
"We regret that the concept may appear not to show due respect, but cremations are essentially industrial `processing of goods'."
There would be some noise when the cremator was used, but noise reduction measures would be incorporated.
"The operation of the cremator will not generate offensive or objectionable odour or particulate matter beyond the site's boundaries."
Submissions close on February 17.
Cremations
• Dunedin City Council-owned Andersons Bay facility carried out 938 cremations in the last financial year, at a cost of $578 each.
• Some local authorities - Invercargill, Wellington and Nelson - provide crematoriums, while others, like Christchurch, do not.
• Hope and Sons plan to use a Power-Pak II cremator, which offers two-hour or less cremation time, and "Smoke-Buster" technology that "consumes and destroys smoke and odour".
