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The smell of roasting coffee is pretty strong. If they're roasting a ton of it, I can see how neighboring businesses might object.

However, I do think it's silly that so many people are willing to attack a local business over it. I doubt 1200 people are actually impacted by the smell on a daily basis.

Oh, I totally misread that. I thought 1200 people objected. Nope, they like it. ;)

The same thing is happening to a local chocolate factory here in Chicago. People just can't stand the smell of chocolate it's so disgusting! Oh sorry, I got confused, I thought I was talking about dog sh&*.

This type of thinking is consistent with our need to live in a sterile society. Pretty sad when the smell of a particular food, and I stress a particular food, chocolate or coffee becomes offensive to people. We're not talking about the god awful aroma that emanates from institutional cafeterias--some sort of sweet oniony cloud of wet bread and unidentifiable protein.

Ha ha, those people wouldn't stand a chance as neighbors of the South St. Louis City area that is home to the world's largest brewer - Anheuser-Busch! The smell of hops and malt wafting through the air for miles, especially on a muggy July night, somehow has developed it's own special tolerance, even sentimentality, amongst the neighbors. It's a bit surprising when you first encounter it, but it's not that hard to get used to and it really grows on you.

I agree, Faith. It's coffee for pete's sake! It's not like it's a trash dump next door. The smell of roasting coffee couldn't possibly be offensive and I think the government should protect businesses like this that add depth and richness (to use coffee terms!) to a community, instead of imposing strict and costly barriers to enter (or stay) in business.

for the most part, i'm on the side of the business...but i have to admit, the smell of really strong coffee is pretty nauseating. my co-worker's daily afternoon brew of starbuck's french roast makes me feel ill when i get a noseful, and that's just a pot's worth of the stuff. i've no idea what the roasting of great quantities of it smells like, but i can imagine that some people aren't going to like it.

if it were the smell of animal waste or rotting garbage, would that be different?

This also reminds me of when I was working out of a catering kitchen in an a residential building with a few floors of offices.

One day I received a complaint from above that the office workers could smell cooking garlic as they went about their activities in and out of the building.

I was literally ordered to stop cooking with garlic.

Further proof that people will complain about anything and everything.

Smells around my city tend to get off scot-free, whether it's the big Molson (Canada's Anheuser-Busch) brewery, the neighbourhood coffee roasters, bagel bakeries or the multitude of restaurants in mixed-use neighbourhoods.

art, I worked at an office above a restaurant one summer (no air-conditioning) and the smell of the garlic and onions being prepped in the afternoon would just make me SO hungry!

OMG, if you've been to Rockland, Maine (hell, most places in Maine) you'd be hard-pressed to find fresh roasted coffee. I wonder if they'd bitch about the greasy smell of Dunkin' Donuts?

I can imagine that the smell of roasting coffee can be pretty strong, but I don't understand why - after 16 years - the public is now complaining. Has the company changed their equipment or roasting method recently?

I think the key fact is whether anything about the smell has changed in 16 years. If there has been no change, then I think the complaints are about 15.5 years late. If these are new neighbours who've moved in after this coffee company, I think it's really their own fault. If they don't like it, they shouldn't have selected that location, since the coffee place was well established and the smell should have been a known factor.

What babies. Some of us grew up in towns and cities with the smell of factories. We didn't have an odor committee. (Oh and I walked 5 miles to school in the snow...) They should be worried about cars and air pollution, not the divine smell of locally made roasting coffee.

I find this pretty ridiculous. I am easily affected by smells, I am sure the smell is very strong and can imagine it's probably unpleasant. But, what I wonder is if there was any communication with the company before it had to be mandated with the city. Surely there has to be a way to compromise that will not cost that small business a lot of money. It also seems like they are opening a can of worms by mandating smells!

It's a shame it had to go to that extreme, I hope the business is not hurt financially by it too much.

Pixie,

That reminds me of people who grew up next to "bubbly creek." This is the river that runs behind the slaughterhouses of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." It still stinks today and there are million dollar houses right there!

I've learned that the city will always be on the side of the new neighbors because new neighbors means more money for the city. For instance, who will win? Loud nightclub that has always been there? Or condominium owner who purchases a new condominium that has been built adjacent to the nightclub?

I've been to Rockland. It is SMALL--population 7,500-- and it's on the coast. Few buildings in town are more than 3 stories high. I can't imagine a smell being very potent or strong in this town, unless you're standing right outside the roaster, or living upstairs.

I'd like to know how many people complained vs how many people signed that petition.

Oh for pity's sake! Talk about ridiculous...

Next thing you know, they'll be complaining about the smell of the ocean. The city should have dealt with this as a nuisance complaint.

Reminds me of back in university, the food court (which was only open until 4 pm) was topped by student apartments (with windows that opened onto the food court), and certain types of ethnic cuisines were banned because of the "smell" (e.g., Indian).

This is pretty hilarious. I grew up right there, and Rockland historically was a huge manufacturing town, specifically with a lot of fish canneries and places that processed sea weed. The local saying for years has gone "Camden by the sea [the motto of the cutesy tourist town nearby] Rockland by the smell." As that industry has fallen away, Rockland was taken over by huge corporation MBNA, and it sounds like the new white collar workers in the area don't take too kindly to the kinds of businesses that have moved in to accommodate them. Imagine if the canneries were still around? That being said, my parents' consistently buy Rock City coffee and that stuff is so strong it gives me a 2 cup a day NYer the shakes.

Oh and also I have to clarify the claim "in business 16 years": the coffee roasting is a business that grew out of Second Read coffee-- a used book store and coffee shop that opened 16 years ago. Rock City itself I would say is around 5 years old at most.

Politics is often (usually?) not about common sense or good policy, but about who makes the most noise. Whether or not that's the way it should be in a representative democracy, that's a discussion for another forum. But if 1200 people have expressed their desire to keep the roasters going and the local government is still opposed, I'm thinking one of two factors is as work: either more people have communicated their dislike of the smell to their local reps, or (more likely) a handful of influential people have gotten to enough of the local council members to push their desires into public policy, despite what the majority wants. So pro-roasters, fight fire with fire - don't got for quantity but quality. Find a few influential people in local circles that will support your side while you keep the grassroots momentum going!

best wishes and good luck to the owner!!!! give some free coffees to the city employees at city hall. bring donuts :)

I find the odor from fast food chains far more nauseating than roasting coffee.

I know I am late to this post, but I have to say roasting coffe is a very harsh bitter smell. It does not smell like coffee - It smells like something burning. It is very strong and spreads for quite some distance. ( I used to live around the corner from D'Amicos in Brooklyn.) So I don't think it's as though these people just don't like coffee aroma.

That said, there are certainly worse nuisance smells than that. And you have to roast it someplace. Is there any way to trap some of the odor before it escapes - like some kind of filter or something?