Old Lyme Funeral Home Proposal Draws Mixed Opinions

OLD LYME, CT – After a more than two-hour discussion Monday, the Zoning Commission continued two hearings on a proposed funeral home at 100 Shore Road.

Residents had mixed opinions on the proposal to convert the former bar into a funeral home. 

Some speakers voiced concerns over chemical waste from embalming fluid.

Attorney Ryan Hoyler, of Robinson & Cole in Hartford, who is representing Old Lyme resident Colleen Falaguerra, said embalming fluid is a federally listed hazardous waste and the property is in an aquifer protection zone, a coastal area and a flood plain. 

More attention should be paid to hazardous waste in that area, Hoyler said.

In addition, he said the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD) talks about protecting the shoreline and private properties in coastal areas with fragile tidal marshes and flood plains.

He asked what would happen if there were a flood and repeatedly said more contemplation was needed on the application. 

“This just is too much,” he said. “This is a hazardous waste. The POCD does not support this.”

Falaguerra said no funeral home should be located in a flood zone. 

Applicant Nicholas Fulton, who presented his plans for converting the building into a funeral home, promised to be a good neighbor. He said he is planning to leave his job at Fulton-Theroux Funeral Home to open his own business.

Fulton said his father previously owned Fulton-Theroux and sold it to the current owners in 1998, the day he started working there full time. He has been working there since.

“Old Lyme is my town, is my family’s town,” he said. “There is nothing that I want to do in this town that would hurt our town, hurt our environment, hurt our community.”

Other speakers lauded Fulton for his neighborliness and assured commission members that the funeral home would not bring undue traffic.

Michael Branciforte, of 3 Beckwith Lane, said traffic from Fulton-Theroux Funeral Home, at 13 Beckwith Lane, is nonexistent.

“I don’t even notice when there’s a funeral,” he said. “Traffic to me isn’t really a factor at all. We walk the neighborhood. We never see cars there at all.”

Kristen Nielsen, of 60 Shore Road, supported the application and said there was no need for a traffic study, a point on which the commission went back and forth during the hearing.

“In my opinion, it’s grasping at procedural slowdowns,” she said. “We don’t need a traffic consultant to tell us the impact of 17 services a year with 35 cars. As someone who lives on Shore Road, there is more traffic than that on Shore Road on a summer day when there’s an accident on Route 95.”

Fulton said there are about 17 funerals a year in Old Lyme and most draw about 35 cars.

Land Use Coordinator Eric Knapp said a traffic study would only be required for 50 new parking spaces or 200 trips a day.

Fulton said he plans to have 32 to 35 parking spots and will utilize the parking lot already there.

Nielsen said Fulton’s plan to build a new funeral home in Old Lyme should be celebrated. 

“We’re talking about a neighbor, someone who grew up in Old Lyme, whose family has been here for generations, who’s raising his own children here, someone who is clearly an expert more than any of us in this room on funeral services and operating a funeral home,” Nielsen said. “And all he wants to do is build something of his own, an independently owned family-run business, and he wants to do it in our town.”

Two Hearings

There were two hearings on the proposal.

Only Hoyler, Fulton and Falaguerra spoke during the first, which was on a wording change to the zoning regulations that would allow on-site embalming of bodies in preparation for burial as long as biohazards are properly removed.

The commission previously approved the measure in 2024. But when the town revised its regulations this summer – which was largely a housekeeping effort to clean up language and formatting – the amendment didn’t make it into the approved regulations. Land Use Coordinator Eric Knapp last month apologized for the error.   

The second hearing drew the majority of speakers, with resident after resident taking to the microphone to voice favor or opposition to converting 100 Shore Road into a funeral home.

A good portion of the debate addressed the necessity of a traffic study. 

Hoyler insisted it is required. 

“A traffic report was required, an architectural plan was required, soil and erosion plans were required,” he said. “None of them were submitted.”

He also said the commission could not approve the application in the absence of a coastal site plan.

“You can’t even hear this application right now,” he said. “You require these things. There’s a reason you require these things. This application is woefully deficient. It misses all the boxes; it tells the commission that it is not within the coastal boundary when it is absolutely within the coastal boundary. There is no question.”

He said an approval would be overturned in court.

“The site plan is woefully, fatally, drastically incomplete,” he said. “It’s as if he didn’t even submit anything to you.”

Later in the meeting, Fulton said when he handed in his application, the land use department told him the property was not in a coastal zone.

At Knapp’s recommendation, the commission continued both hearings until its December meeting.

Knapp said state law dictates that Lyme, East Lyme and Old Saybrook, which abut the zone where the funeral home will be located, must be given time to offer their thoughts on the application. He said he did not anticipate hearing from them, which would be considered a positive referral. 

On Thursday, Knapp said the commission asked for Fulton to submit a coastal site plan showing how the project will protect sensitive shoreline resources, as well as a site plan signed and stamped by a surveyor or engineer. Knapp anticipated Fulton will prepare a more detailed architectural floor plan and provide details on how hazardous materials will be handled, and said the commission also would also like to see a landscaping plan.

He added it will be helpful if Fulton provides a traffic plan establishing how cars would enter and exit the site.