In early October North America’s largest purveyor of Death Care services, Service Corporation International (SCI), received an approved zoning ruling to build Funeraria del Angel, a funeral home and cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.  You can read about the development in this article from the San Antonio Report titled “Against a school district’s wishes, the South Side is getting a new cemetery“.

Service Corporation International (SCI) first submitted the request a full year ago in October 2024, causing backlash from the Southside Mission Del Lago community and a meeting with local residents.

In what is somewhat a rare instance the local school district, Southside Independent School District, had actually passed a resolution in opposition to the 80-acre site becoming a cemetery.  According to the article, it turns out that “In Texas, cemeteries are tax-exempt, meaning they don’t have to pay property taxes to the local government agencies, including the school districts they’re located in.  Property taxes are a significant revenue stream for school districts — it’s how districts pay for day-to-day costs and how they pay off bond debt used for infrastructure projects. Limited funding by the state puts more pressure on school districts’ property tax collecting measures.”

Again, according to the article, “Financial pressures and growing enrollment in the area are in large part why the (school) district’s board of trustees adopted a resolution against SCI’s rezoning request with a 5-1-1 vote.”  You can see a copy of that resolution here.

Instead of a cemetery located on potential prime commercial property on the 80 acres in question many community members suggested that the vacant acreage could be used for residential housing or commercial uses such as grocery stores, restaurants, retail stores, and medical clinics– all uses that would carry with them a tax assesed value for the school district.

Residents against the SCI proposal also pointed out that District 3 already had 21 cemeteries — most of which have been around for a hundred years before zoning regulations.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As America continues having changing views on Death Care I think “zoning issues” will become more and more top of mind in the construction of new funeral homes, cemeteries, and crematories.  The interesection of urban planning, resident wishes, and Death Care businesses is simply becoming more and more difficult to manage and reach amenable solutions for all parties.

In another view of this situation, I was interested in how people in cemetery’s don’t pay taxes, but my father always joked that they could vote.  Back in the 1960 Presidential election the claim is that Vice-President Richard Nixon would have won that election had he captured the electoral votes of Illinois. . . .a state in which he lost by fewer than 9,000 votes.

My dad used to always say that he would like to be buried in Illinois. . . .”because at least he could still vote there”.  So, if you think a debate over election vote totals is something new, you didn’t know about the accusations of the 1960 vote in Illinois.  According to some people, names on cemetery tombstones were scoured to get voter registrations for them and absentee votes from those “cemetery people” carried the Illinois election for John F. Kennedy. . . and put him in the White House!!!

Just for fun, here’s an article from Block Club Chicago titled “Chicago and rigged elections?  The history is even crazier than you have heard.”

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Harvard must face lawsuits over theft of body parts by ex-morgue manager, court rules.  Reuters
• Casket burial options explained:  In-ground and mausoleum choices.  Mission San Luis Rey (CA)
• How Civil War deaths advanced America’s funeral industry.  History.com
• Derby’s longest established family-owned funeral directors opens its doors to reveal what goes on behind the scenes.  Derbyshire Times (Great Britain)
• From German skies to Arlington, 80 years later.  Arlington National Cemetery blog.

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