CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Dignity Funeral Services has withdrawn its request to have property it owns rezoned from residential to commercial adjacent to Oman Funeral Home on Cedar Road.

The residential property has a home and a garage. An attorney for the company told the Planning Commission in October that the garage would not be used to store bodies. The commission then sent a recommendation for approval of the rezoning based on that assurance.

The withdrawal was noted in a letter the city received from Dignity’s attorney Troutman Pepper, according to a city spokesman. It came the morning after a 10 On Your Side investigation showed bodies being moved from the garage to the funeral home at the front of the property.

The bodies were placed in a black van. The van then pulled up to the side of Oman Funeral Home, and the driver then off-loaded the bodies onto carts and took them inside for cremation.

Planning Commission chairman Marc Steiner told 10 On Your Side that he saw in our report — bodies come out of the garage was a complete surprise to him, and was not discussed in the Oct. 12 planning meeting.

Steiner said what he saw was, in his words, “different from what we heard.”

Dignity president James Altmeyer and his attorney have not responded to calls for comment.

10 On Your Side took a walk through the neighborhood that’s adjacent to Oman Funeral Home and found some neighbors who said they don’t oppose the rezoning, and they don’t have a problem even with what they saw in our report.

For now, Dignity will have to go back to the drawing board as far as rezoning goes and resubmit its request if it still wants to rezone that property.