The funeral directors were this week granted consent to establish and operate a crematorium in Dukes Rd North.
The crematorium will be in competition with the Dunedin City Council's crematorium at Andersons Bay. Councillors decided not to put it on the market last year despite knowing the private operator wanted to invest in a cremator. Half of its business comes from Hope and Sons.
The plans include a 240sq m building to house a cremator, an administration and staff area, a lobby, toilets and a processing and storage room, and five parking spaces outside.
It would be built in an industrial zone on subdivided greenfields land in the middle of a 1ha site.
Council planner Hamish Osborne's decision says public notification of the application was not required because adverse effects would be no more than minor, all potential affected parties had given written approval and there were no special circumstances.
The consent allows for 24-hour operation, and carries conditions concerning managing noise from the cremator.
Hope and Sons is also seeking a discharge-to-air consent from the Otago Regional Council. This has also been processed on a non-notified basis and a decision is due this week.
Hope and Sons director Michael Hope said he did not want to ''count his chickens'' before the second consent decision, but he was hopeful and the plan was to have the cremator operating by next year.
Hope and Sons had planned its own crematorium on its site in South Dunedin, but early last year shelved an appeal against earlier decisions by the city council and regional council not to grant consents for it.
About the same time, Mr Hope said the council approached the company about buying the Andersons Bay Crematorium.
However, councillors decided last May not to sell the crematorium, for ''a combination of social and commercial reasons''.
Mr Hope said he was open to other funeral directors using a new cremator but had not approached anyone while waiting to hear about consent.
Hope and Sons' original applications for operation and discharge-to-air consents were publicly notified because the proposal was for an out-of-zone activity.
Grey Power's Jo Millar said this week that if the new site was not close to people's homes, Grey Power was not too worried aside from the potential issues of the new service taking work from the council-run operation and, potentially, pushing up prices. Mr Hope said prices at the council crematorium were going up 10% every year. He hoped his prices would be competitive. People would still have the choice of cremation at Andersons Bay.
The small building would be well screened by planting, was about as far away from residences as it could get, and there would be no noticeable emissions.
''You won't even know it's there and operating.''
Council parks and recreation services manager Mick Reece said once the project was definitely going ahead, and depending on how much business was going to go to the new crematorium, questions would have to be asked about the future of the council crematorium.
