Suzanne Arena, left, and Ramsey Davis, organizers of a group calling itself stopcranstoncon- crete.org, hand out dust masks and stickers before the City Council meeting last night.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

CRANSTON — Showing that they will not waver in their fight against Cullion Concrete Corp.’s proposed concrete plant off Pontiac Avenue, more than 200 residents turned out for last night’s City Council meeting to express outrage that the state has issued a wetlands permit for the partially constructed facility.

“That’s right, line up — let’s show them we’re not going anywhere,” a man yelled from a tiered row of seats in the auditorium at Cranston High School East, where the council had moved its meeting to accommodate the crowd. “Let’s keep them here all night!”

Organizers of the opposition had handed out white protective dust masks to symbolize their concern that one of the detriments of the plant would be the release of carcinogenic silica dust. Although most people in the crowd readily accepted the masks, few put them in place and instead had them perched on their foreheads, hanging around their necks or dangling from their wrists.

Rather than rely on props, residents chose to line up to speak to the council and reiterate the litany of concerns they have about the plant that Cullion Concrete wants to build on Marine Drive, at the southern edge of the Eden Park neighborhood.

Before the night was over, the residents — who were not shy about issuing catcalls and jeers for any public official they did not perceive as being in their corner — heard Mayor Michael T. Napolitano and a unanimous City Council vow that the city will fight the permit issued by the state Department of Environmental Management.

“I have already ordered the city solicitor to appeal that permit,” Napolitano said, eliciting cheers from a crowd that had been wary at first. About 1½ hours later, there was more applause when the City Council, which had put a similar resolution on last night’s agenda, unanimously echoed the action; the council said it would appeal the permit to the Superior Court.

“We are on a steady course and we will not let you down!” Council President Aram G. Garabedian yelled with evangelical passion as he tried to summarize the complicated legal web that the issue has become ensnared in. “I helped organized you [residents], I helped name your group, and I helped [obtain] contributions,” he said. “I’m sorry to get emotional.”

The DEM permit allows construction of the plant on a roughly 10-acre site that is in an area near the Pawtuxet River that floods after heavy rains.

That permit is only one of several fronts on which the building is being fought.

Even if the city is able to stay the wetlands permit, there are suits and countersuits pending in Superior Court and also an appeal from Cullion that is slated to be heard by the state Supreme Court.

The matter also still has to be heard by the city’s Zoning Board of Review, because residents are challenging the building permit issued for the project more than a year ago. Even that process has become complicated, with the zoning board unable to convene a quorum on the issue because three of its seven members recused themselves because of possible conflicts of interest.

While that was being played out, Cullion Concrete asked the Superior Court to eliminate the zoning board from the process on the grounds that council members’ alliance with neighbors in opposition to the plant made it impossible to get a fair hearing on the local level.

In February, a Superior Court judge rejected that request from Cullion and sent the matter back to the city — advising that the city can expand the size of the zoning board. Municipalities’ zoning boards can only be altered with the approval of the state legislature, and city officials have been waiting for the passage of legislation that would increase board’s membership from five members and two alternates to five members and four alternates.

The legislation recently was passed by both the House and the Senate, and the council last night unanimously expanded the board. In the meantime, however, Cullion appealed the Superior Court judge’s ruling and last month the Supreme Court said it will hear the case of Cullion’s building permit.

There have been other legal actions, including a $1-million lawsuit filed against the city and City Council members by Cullion for the cost of the project’s being put on hold.

The concerns reiterated by neighbors last night ranged from fear of health hazards to worries about traffic and plummeting property values. Most council members also railed against the plant, leaving residents and city officials yelling at each although they were largely in agreement.

A couple of council members, however, cautioned that they would not let their opposition to the plant cause them to do anything that might further Cullion’s claim that the city was too biased to settle the matter.

“Let’s be sure we do this legally,” said at-large Councilman John E. Lanni Jr.

“Let’s make sure this gets killed in the courts. I will not overreact.”

bpoliche@projo.com