Public Opposition Stalls Supermarket : Acton: Ralphs Grocery Co. reconsiders plans to build store after neighbors voice concerns about crime and traffic.

ACTON — The market may not be ready for the market.

Recently voiced fears of crime and traffic by residents have forced a major supermarket chain to re-evaluate its decision to locate in rural Acton, a move that was endorsed three years ago by the Acton Town Council.

“We’d like to go to communities where people look forward to us serving them,” Byron Allumbaugh, chairman and CEO of Ralphs Grocery Co., said through a spokesperson.

“As you know, there is some opposition. So, after doing a survey, we’re going to make a determination about the location.”

Neighborhood opposition to the small desert community’s first major supermarket was expressed at last week’s Town Council meeting and has been reported as high as 75% in at least two local surveys.

The project suffered another setback four months ago. In September, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission denied Ralphs’ application for a conditional-use permit to sell alcohol at the site at Sierra Highway and Crown Valley Parkway.

Company officials, who say all Ralphs markets sell liquor, have filed an appeal that will be heard Jan. 13 before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

But community activist Charles Brink, Ralph Hamper and others plan to be at the meeting armed with petitions opposing the project, unless Ralphs proves that the community warrants--or will grow into--a 45,000-square-foot market surrounded by a variety of other stores.

“It’s a nine-acre asphalt mess,” said Hamper, whose family with five others is spearheading the petition drive. “We just flat don’t want it and we don’t need it.

Brink said residents also fear the project would bring more traffic, as well as more crime to their neighborhood.

“A lot of people in the community really think it’s a freeway store because when you drive up the 14 freeway, it’s the last store before you hit Lancaster,” said Brink, a former Acton Town Council member. “We don’t want a lot of people from Palmdale stopping in here for a cold beer on the way home after work and driving off the freeway and killing somebody.”

But market supporters say opponents’ fears are in the minority. They point to the fact that the Acton Town Council, a non-governing body created to represent residents in talks with developers and county officials, endorsed the project in 1990.

“I think that there are many people who do a majority of their shopping outside the community,” said Town Council member Kathleen Howald. “A larger market would provide them with a more convenient place to shop.”

“And most importantly,” she added, “the property at this corner is zoned for major commercial. Given other options, a community market seems proper for the location.”

Town Council President Richard Morris pointed out that Ralphs has tried to work with the community, scaling back the market’s proposed 24-hour operation to 6 a.m. to midnight. He also said the market’s sign, a monument instead of a post, would not attract freeway customers.

“I think the developer has done an awful lot to ensure that it’s a community market,” Morris said. “This is not marketed toward commuters. I don’t think you’re going to get a line of people pulling off the freeway to buy a can of beer.”

However, Hamper said: “We just don’t want the big city moving in.”

He added that supermarket opponents also are circulating petitions to recall seven of the eight Town Council board members.