Zoning hearing approves cemetery use request
A Uniontown man was granted approval to preserve and use an ancient cemetery as a personal family cemetery.
Grayson D. White approached the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board Wednesday morning to request the special exception for his property along Bitner Road.
“I was talking to an older gentleman this summer who said at one time, there had been 20 to 30 stones there. There are now only four to five,” said White. He said that he bought the property approximately 30 years ago and was unaware of the cemetery being there at the time.
The property had been stripped for coal in years past, before White purchased the property, and he believes several stones were destroyed. The ones remaining, all from the early 1800s, will be fenced in and preserved as a historical area, according to White.
“We want to clean it up, put a fence around it and preserve it,” said White. The land around it will be used as a personal cemetery for members in their family. White also said they would add something to the land deed to make sure the cemetery would be preserved forever.
The zoning board also unanimously approved two other special exception requests.
One of the hearings was for Louis N. Usher Jr., of Perryopolis, to use his converted barn along Fayette City Road as a special event hall.
Attorney Robert Harper, who represented Usher during the hearing, said the building was renovated into a venue for weddings, ceremonies, birthday parties or other events.
The second hearing was for Sleighter Engineering to ask for a 20-foot variance on the front and a five-foot variance on the sides of a proposed senior housing project in Fairchance.
Engineer Rob Sleighter said it would be a 24-unit, two-story complex with two wings and a central community area. They also asked that the board would approve an extension to the approval timeline, normally one year, to allow for the project’s funding to be granted.