Neighbors In Rancho Cucamonga Aren't Dying To Have Funeral Parlor Move In

RANCHO CUCAMONGA (CBS) — Residents of a Rancho Cucamonga neighborhood want to keep a proposed business from moving into the area.

They say a funeral parlor should not be built smack in the middle of several new developments in the San Bernardino County neighborhood.

Art Barron, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said residents are worried about their property values.

And some, frankly, don't want to live that close to dead people.

"We are not happy about this at all," Wendy Sandoval told Barron. She showed him a petition signed by residents who are decidedly against the funeral parlor.

"Don't want it, don't want it, don't want it," she said, rattling down signatures. "We're hoping that the councilmen and the mayor of our city will get involved and not allow it to effect the residents who pridefully live in this area."

Resident Joseph Russell is also firmly against the funeral home moving into his neighborhood.

"It's just not part of our community. It's not a good fit," he says. "So, we'll do whatever we can to fight it."

Planning Commission Chairman Luis Munoz has tried to assuage the fears of some residents by explaining that there will be no embalming or cremating done on the premises.

Either way, bodies don't bother resident Shirley Gaskins, who doesn't understand all the fuss.

"So what?" she shrugs. "Some people have a hard time dealing with death. The idea that it's going to be in the neighborhood. Dead things. In the neighborhood. Ooooh."

The new business would sit just north of a post office and across the street from Etiwanda Gardens. There's also a wedding and banquet hall close by, but none of those businesses have upset the neighborhood.

Planning Commission members are expected to meet at City Hall July 25 to consider granting a conditional use permit to Service Corporation International, a Texas-based firm that specializes in funeral homes.

However, some residents told Barron they will consider walking away from their homes and letting them go into foreclosure if the grant is approved.