Judge orders crematory to close
A home-based pet cremation business will have to shut down or move after a Kootenai County judge ruled last week that the operation, though valuable to society and holding a valid county permit, is not allowed in the rural subdivision where it is located.
In his decision, 1st District Court Judge John Luster noted many subdivision residents — even those who sued their neighbors running Jam-Por Pet Cremations — routinely ignored covenants of the Homestead Meadows near Garwood. But, Luster wrote, Jam-Por clearly violates the covenant against “commercial activity” even though the term itself is legally ambiguous.
“I was shocked at the outcome because all of the neighbors violate the covenants,” Jam-Por co-owner Genie James said. “I feel that if one person is in violation of the CC and Rs (codes, covenants and restrictions), then we all are.”
Homestead Meadows residents are on 5-acre and 10-acre lots. Testimony at the April non-jury trial revealed that most residents seemed to routinely ignore covenants by logging — both selective and clearcut — running livestock, selling hay or running various home-based businesses.
None of the other covenant violations “constituted the type of permanent daily operation that is involved with Jam-Por,” Luster wrote. While other property owners “have run aspects of their business from their homes, the actual focus of their business was outside the subdivision. Jam-Por’s focus involves a service that takes place within the subdivision.”
The pet crematory, owned by Brad Porter, James and her daughter Tara Lowery, opened in September 2002 and has, according to a transcript of James’ testimony, averaged 120 cremations a year.
Neighbors filed suit in December 2002, seemingly objecting to the nature of the business. Neighbors complained of the smell of burning flesh and voiced worries that ash would drift across their homes.
“I guess most people think of a home business as a hair salon or an accountant,” Kootenai County planning director Rand Wichman said at the time, “but this one appears to meet our criteria.”
Despite complaints, an inspection by Kootenai County officials detected no odor when the crematorium was operating. James on Wednesday noted she invested two years and $60,000 to start the business, building a separate shed and running an industrial gas line for the Matthews All Cremator, called a state-of-the art machine that incinerates pet remains at 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
She built the crematorium at Homestead Meadows “to make it affordable and keep animals out of ditches and dumpsters and the landfill.”
James, Porter and Lowery are only beginning to examine options about relocating, James said.
Luster’s ruling allows Jam-Por to operate until the neighbors file for an injunction to shut it down.
“The business provides a valuable service to the community,” Luster wrote. “It is, nonetheless, a business.”