Hogansville is likely to have a third funeral home by the end of the year after City Council signed off unanimously on a rezoning request for the family-owned business.

David Woods, owner of Woods Funeral Home at 318 Holmes St., spent two months trying to get the city’s planning board to recommend the zoning change from residential to residential-commercial. Planning board members decided last month to send the request to council without a recommendation, because two members had conflicts of interest and two others believed the change would result in “spot zoning” for the neighborhood.

“We’re very relieved,” said Woods, who attended the council meeting Monday with his brothers, Richard and Charles, and about a dozen other family members and supporters. “It was worth it.”

David Woods is a Zebulon city councilman himself, but a Hogansville native. Woods Funeral Home operated at the same location more than 30 years ago.

“This is a family-oriented business,” Richard Woods said. “Our father started the business.”

Woods needed the rezoning because when the business was first opened as a funeral home, Hogansville had no zoning laws. He and his supporters argued that reopening it now wouldn’t be a case of “spot zoning” because the only other building on Holmes Street is a church and it’s common for funeral homes to be in residential areas. Claude A. McKibben Funeral home is on Johnson Street in Hogansville, a residential area. Thrash and Sons Funeral Home is on West Main Street, near downtown. Hunter-Allen-Myhand Funeral Home is in a residential area of Hill Street in LaGrange.

Woods had a petition with about 100 signatures, many from the neighboring church, in support of the funeral home reopening.

“I normally listen to people in the area (when there’s a rezoning vote) and I haven’t heard anyone opposed to this,” said Councilman Charlie Frank Martin.

Family members erupted in applause after the council’s vote.

“We appreciate the support of the community,” David Woods said.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.