The Butler Township Zoning Hearing Board Wednesday approved a special zoning variance allowing Spencer Geibel Funeral Home to install a crematorium at its facility on New Castle Road, which owner Spencer Geibel said will double the size of the building.

The funeral home offers cremation services, but Geibel said the addition would allow the business to perform the service in-house. Butler Township’s ordinance says a crematory shall not be located within 500 feet of any residences, but with the exception, the funeral home, located at 140 New Castle Road, will be allowed to move forward on building a crematorium.

Geibel said the exception also will allow the funeral home to add 60 more parking spots. He said that while he does not yet own the property he plans to build on, the demand for cremations has gone up recently.

“There has been a greater demand for my funeral home,” Geibel said. “My families have been asking more for cremations.”

Geibel said he estimates that the project will take about 18 months to complete, if everything goes according to plan.

The hearing board also approved a special exception for Shockey Mini Storage at 140 Shockey Lane to build a new warehouse on its property.

General manager Daryl Shockey said the storage company has had to turn away customers because it doesn’t have enough units to rent to them. The addition of a new two-story storage building will add about 100 units to the business, which he said should help fill the need.

“This new building will give us the additional space necessary to expand,” Shockey said.

According to Shockey, the project also involves a stormwater management component, which will help mitigate water flooding and damage on and around the property.

The only zoning exception Shockey requested that was not granted was the variance to the building height limit of 20 feet. The company requested to build a warehouse 25 feet high, but Shockey said the project can work under the 20-foot limit.

“I'm glad we got the approvals that we got, and we are taking that information and working with that into moving forward,” he said.

Shockey said the project is still in the “very early stages,” so he doesn’t have an estimate as to when the new storage building will be completed.