Fullerton Crowd Cheers as City Blocks Flour Mill

Hundreds of residents broke into cheers after the Fullerton City Council rejected a proposed flour mill that opponents said would dust their nearby homes and create a blight on the horizon with its 16 silos, each 102 feet tall.

After a public hearing that lasted more than five hours and drew more than 350 residents, the City Council on Tuesday voted 4 to 1 to block the mill at the old Hunt-Wesson cannery.

“We beat these guys, we finally beat them,” said Ralph Rebich, who lives two blocks from the proposed site at Commonwealth Avenue and Brookhurst Road.

Residents presented more than 1,500 signatures, a videotape and emotional testimony throughout the night. The meeting took place in the Sunny Hills High School auditorium to accommodate the crowd.

“There’s no doubt that the City Council voted on emotions, not on the facts,” said Brad Hover, vice president of operations for agriculture giant ConAgra Inc., which wanted to build the flour mill.

The fact, Hover said, is that ConAgra did everything it could to soften the neighborhood impact since it began planning the project a year ago. The property is zoned for industrial uses, and the proposal met all the city’s requirements.

The plant would have been the first large-scale flour mill in Orange County and would have served local bakeries that have relied on mills in Los Angeles and in Devore. The proposed mill would have generated about 20 jobs.

The mill project won unanimous approval from the city’s Planning Commission in July, but residents immediately protested and said the 129-foot-tall mill would be an eyesore, would create dust and noise and could be a safety hazard.

Hover said he was shocked by the reaction, and the company arranged a community meeting and mailed fliers in an attempt to ease concerns.

The bottom line was that people just needed to be educated, Hover said.

ConAgra officials went to the meeting Tuesday willing to postpone the project until they could return with a full environmental impact report.

But Bill Wotring, 36, a resident who appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to the City Council, said he wanted to proceed with the hearing and was confident the council would reject the project.

“With the evidence we’ve seen, we think you’ll see things our way,” Wotring told the City Council.

Several residents expressed concerns about such things as safety, health, visual impact, noise and traffic.

ConAgra assured residents that the mostly automated mill would be equipped with modern filters that would make it safe and clean. The officials also said the mill would make little or no noise.

Flour mills are a nuisance to those who live near them, said Pamela Johnson, a UC Berkeley student who lives near a similar flour mill off the freeway in Devore.

“It’s disgusting, it’s ugly, it’s obnoxious,” Johnson told the City Council.

Council members F. Richard Jones and Jan M. Flory, who voted against the mill, said they were impressed with the residents’ efforts and moved by their concerns. Councilman Chris Norby, who voted in favor of the mill, said the residents’ presentations did not justify killing the project.

ConAgra can return to the city in six months with another proposal but has not yet made a decision. The site was ideal for a flour mill because of its size and the surrounding railroads, Hover said.

“There’s not much more we can do,” Hover said. “We’re the owners of the property now. We’ve got to figure out what to do with it.”