Opponents of a highly controversial plan to build a crematorium in north Tiverton left Tuesday night’s planning board meeting in a celebratory mood following the board’s unanimous vote to deny the application.

While only four audience members spoke during the relatively subdued public hearing, it was clear that wide-ranging community feedback in recent months, particularly that which focused on the crematorium’s projected effects on the health and safety of people who live in the neighborhood, helped influence the outcome. 

“The number one purpose of Tiverton zoning is to protect the health and welfare of the public,” planning board chairman Stu Hardy said prior to the vote. Referring to the massive amount of written and public testimony the board has received, including from those he called “highly qualified individuals with very impressive credentials,” he said he was concerned about the impact of what many have referred to as the facility’s dangerous particulate emissions on the people who live close to 730 Main Road, where Fall River funeral home director Jonathon Ferreira wants to build the facility.

Ferreria’s company, Sakonnet Partners LLC, originally unveiled its proposal for the 2,960-square-foot crematorium and chapel in December 2021. Since that time, as word spread in town, fierce opposition to the project has grown, and attendance at planning board meetings is unusually large whenever the proposal is part of the agenda. Tuesday’s public hearing was held at the high school auditorium to accommodate the crowd, estimated at well over 100.

Board member Trish Hilton spoke prior to the vote, saying she was particularly worried about Pocasset Avenue and Hambly Road residents, many of whom live in two-story houses located uphill from the proposed structure. They would be exposed to toxic emissions, she said, that would be carried by a consistent westerly wind, and such exposure could have highly detrimental effects in coming years.

Following the vote, as audience members left the auditorium, Main Road resident Robert Fazzina was on the receiving end of some congratulatory handshakes and pats on the back. At recent meetings, Fazzina, whose home is within a few feet of the border of the proposed site, has been a consistent presence, addressing the board repeatedly in often furious tones about the impact of the project on his family and his neighbors.

Asked for his reaction to the vote, Fazzina said, “I think it was a good outcome. You just can’t have a crematorium at the bottom of a hill.”

He said his passionate involvement in the ongoing protest was motivated primarily by his nine-month-old grandson, who is part of his household, and by the elderly and sick people who live nearby.

He acknowledged he is well aware his fight may not be over, as Ferreira and his team could appeal the planning board’s decision.

“Is this the end of it? Absolutely not,” Fazzina said. “But you can believe me when I tell you I am ready for it.”

Ferreira was noncommittal after the meeting when asked about his next steps.

“Not right now. You will have to ask me when we get there.”