Funeral home Campbell and Sons Ltd has been granted resource consent for a 24-hour, seven-day a-week crematorium at 175 Dukes Rd.
Campbell and Sons managing director Clark Campbell, of Mosgiel, said building a crematorium was the best way to secure the future of the long-standing business.
The proximity to the nearby crematorium was simply due to the zoning in the council’s district plans, but over the past five years there had been a "huge increase in demand" for direct cremation.
"We’re a 125-year-old, fourth-generation, locally, family-owned business - and, probably, if we want to have an option of remaining that way we’re probably going to need a crematorium," Mr Campbell said.
"The industry is changing quite dramatically from small, locally owned firms to ‘other’.
"To have options going forward, we don’t necessarily want to be in that space, but I think we do have to be."
The company had not applied for a building consent and Mr Campbell could not say when the crematorium would be operational.
The proposed facility would have a total floor area of about 350sq m, a building height of 5.8m and an 8m chimney stack.
The non-notified consent granted in May allows for a farewell room, cremator, an office, storeroom, staff facilities and parking, and 15 public car parks on the site.
The business would only be open to the public during normal business hours.
Signage was intended to be discreet, Dunedin City Council documents say.
The 5354sq m section in Dukes Rd falls within an industrial zone, and the consent notes crematoriums fall within the council’s definition of industrial activity.
The Dukes Rd site is next to a farm and tractor machinery and sales operation on one boundary, and on the eastern boundary, as the zoning changes, an equestrian centre.
The consent documents state the nearest residential activity to Campbell and Sons’ proposed crematorium is 140m to the north of it.
Because the application was deemed to have limited environmental effects, the only affected party identified was manawhenua.
On Te Runanga o Otakau’s behalf, the application included support from Aukaha Ltd.
Its written approval was subject to the Heritage New Zealand archaeological discovery protocol and that landscape planting included native, fruit-bearing plantings to promote the return of native birds to the area.
One of eight conditions tied to the council’s approval is that the landscaping of the site - including the planting of six kowhai trees — must be done first.
The consent also approves a pet cremator on the site, but Mr Campbell said the company had dropped those plans.
Hope and Sons opened a crematorium at 169 Dukes Rd in 2015.
A council spokesman said the Andersons Bay crematorium "will continue to operate as normal".
