Columbia, SC (WACH)- Residents at a Richland County apartment complex are worried about some new neighbors.
People in the Deer Meadows apartment complex off Garners Ferry Road are speaking out about an unwanted gravesite being dug behind their complex.
J.P. Holley funeral home is expanding their burial grounds directly behind a few of the apartment buildings. Residents claim that they were never notified about the graveyard expansion.
Emily Swancutt was helping her boyfriend move in this past weekend when she saw something surprising outside the window.
“There was a casket and there were some people sitting looking at the casket with some flowers and then I closed all the blinds because I felt very awkward because it's a funeral and I didn't want to disturb that.” said Swancutt.
The residents are unhappy about that view from their backyards.
Richland County spokeswoman Stephany Snowden says the funeral home is well within its rights to expand there.
“When it comes to any designation any zoning of rural or commercial or industrial, and the entity is equipped, certainly a funeral expansion can take place," said Snowden.
Bill Metz has lived in the Deer Meadows complex for three years and is outraged whether it's being done by the book or not. He is moving out in May.
“If it's going to be a cemetery I don't want to look out my window and see a grave and people being buried," said Metz. "It's just freaky.”
WACH Fox News contacted the J.P. Holley funeral home about the issue. The owner was not available for comment.
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