FILLMORE : Hearing Scheduled on Concrete Plant

Fillmore’s Planning Commission will hold a public hearing tonight to decide if Hurst Concrete Products Inc. has complied with restrictions placed on its operations last summer.

The commission will also consider a proposal for a new health club on Central Avenue.

Proposed expansion of a storage yard and 24-hour operation at Hurst’s north Fillmore plant drew protests last year from neighbors who said that the facility was noisy and that work was carried on outside the hours permitted by the city.

The City Council responded by limiting Hurst’s operations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., restricting night truck deliveries to the plant and requiring noise-reduction devices for some equipment.

Hurst was also required to landscape the area.

The company may request 24-hour operations when all of the council’s requirements have been met. But Al Franzen, general manager for Hurst, said expansion of the storage yard is on hold indefinitely, because the company has experienced a “drastic reduction” in demand for its product because of the slow economy.

A report by Fillmore planning staff said there have been two complaints by citizens in the past 10 months, but Hurst has complied with most of the restrictions and made some of the improvements required by the City Council. Landscaping work should begin soon, the staff reported, and equipment to reduce the high-pitched noise of a vapor machine should be in place next month.

The commission, which will meet at 7:30 p.m., will also consider whether a former discount store at 411 Central Ave. can be turned into a health spa and gym. Richard Ortega has proposed an operation that would include exercise equipment, such as step and weight machines, and an area for aerobic workouts.