City Hall’s Arch Enemies : Simi Valley: Residents worried about losing their semirural lifestyle are waging war over proposals to build a McDonald’s and a police shooting range.

Until recently, Simi Valley resident Eileen Gordon had never been to a City Council meeting. She had never even bothered to watch the meetings on cable television.

But for the past two months, Gordon and dozens of others in the exclusive Indian Hills subdivision have waged war on City Hall, attacking plans for a fast-food restaurant and an outdoor police shooting range proposed to be built nearby.

McDonald’s Corp. wants to build a restaurant with drive-through service at the northwest corner of Yosemite Avenue and the Simi Valley Freeway, and the Simi Valley Police Department wants to construct a temporary shooting range in the Las Llajas Dam Basin, located on county property about half a mile northeast of the Indian Hills subdivision.

Incensed that their semirural lifestyle and perhaps their property values are being threatened by Big Mac traffic jams and the constant clatter of gunfire, residents began organizing.

Like Gordon, a five-year resident, many knew little about city government, so they spent hours poring over planning documents to educate themselves. Then they spent hours on the telephone educating others. They went door-to-door, gathering signatures on petitions. They gave themselves a name--Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley--and they took their case to City Hall.

There are 574 houses in the Indian Hills subdivision, according to the city planning department.

Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley includes 40 active members who have consistently been able to persuade 100 or more residents to attend Planning Commission and City Council hearings on the McDonald’s and shooting range proposals.

They have also gathered more than 300 signatures on a petition opposing the projects.

Residents told the City Council that the McDonald’s restaurant would add more than 3,000 vehicle trips a day at an already dangerous intersection. It would also generate noise and litter and, perhaps worst of all, they said, the restaurant’s 25-foot sign would be the first thing motorists heading west on the Simi Valley Freeway would see when they enter the city.

“The very character of Simi Valley would be changed forever,” Gordon told city officials. “Instead of saying ‘Welcome to Simi Valley’ to all the visitors of the prestigious Ronald Reagan Library, it will be ‘Welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order please.’ ”

The gun range proposal drew similar fire.

“We know what distant gunfire sounds like, and we don’t want to hear it,” resident Bill Souder said. “Our quality of life will be degraded due to this noise.”

Although divided on the issues, the City Council agreed to temporarily put plans for the restaurant and the gun range on hold. The council instructed McDonald’s to conduct more traffic studies and directed city staff to arrange for additional noise tests Saturday at the proposed firing range site. All five council members agreed to go to the Indian Hills subdivision to hear the tests for themselves.

But city officials have mixed feelings about the neighborhood group and their strong opposition to the proposed projects.

Some council members said that while they welcome the group’s input, they believe that the residents are being unreasonable, particularly about the McDonald’s proposal.

Councilwoman Sandi Webb said the city risks being sued if it doesn’t allow the restaurant to be built. More important, she said, it would be sending the wrong signal to businesses that want to come to Simi Valley at a time when some firms are laying off workers and thinking about moving out.

“I’m sorry they think they feel that the McDonald’s is going to cause all of these problems,” Webb said. “I honestly don’t think it will. I support the project.”

Councilman Bill Davis, a resident of Indian Hills, said he feels that the group has also been unfair on the gun range proposal. Although Davis has abstained from voting on the McDonald’s issue, claiming a possible conflict of interest, he has supported the gun range and said he will vote for it.

“They are really being unreasonable,” Davis said of the opposing residents. “They said they support the Police Department. But they really don’t.”

Some members of the neighborhood group have charged that Davis is playing politics by supporting the gun range. They said the veteran councilman, who recently announced that he will seek reelection in November, is hoping to capture the vote of the police officers union.

Davis denies the accusation.

“If I were playing politics, why would I be looking for the police vote?” he said. “There are more residents in Indian Hills than there are police officers.”

Davis--who wears hearing aids, Gordon pointed out--said he heard the initial noise tests conducted on the gun range and concluded that they were not disturbing. The councilman said the city has been searching for a suitable site for two years. The gun range, he said, would save the city about $50,000 a year in overtime pay and other expenses for officers to travel to a gun range in Camarillo to practice.

Davis said that in supporting the proposal, he is thinking of the benefit to the entire community.

“I can’t just say I represent Indian Hills and everyone else be damned,” he said.

Even if the new noise tests show that the range isn’t the irritant residents have feared, they have already begun talking about other concerns that the city has not addressed.

Nicolette Munoz worries about what will happen to the lead collected on the 150-foot hillside officers will be firing into. She said the city needs to remove the lead if the range is closed.

“We don’t want to leave a toxic dump site in the Las Llajas Dam area,” she said. “If the lead is not extracted, that’s what we will be doing.”

Whatever the outcome, members of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley seem to be enjoying the battle. They pledge that they will remain active and say they plan to get more involved in citywide issues in the future.

“It’s a commitment,” Munoz said. “We’re just a bunch of people trying to make things better in Simi Valley.”

Gordon agreed.

“We don’t want to be a group that just complains,” she said. “We want to work with the City Council. We want to be a helpful group.”

Gordon said the group has set up a “phone tree,” which consists of several volunteers who have lists of names and numbers of people who can be called whenever an issue arises.

Souder, who moved to Simi Valley only six months ago, said he also has enjoyed playing an active role in protecting his new neighborhood and wants to continue.

“I feel terrible that I’ve had to get up and challenge the city government on these issues,” Souder said. “But I was defending my little piece of turf. We’re not anti-McDonald’s or anti-development. . . . We’re just trying to address issues where we think there’s a problem.”

Souder, an electrical engineer, said he is giving serious consideration to applying for an open seat on the Planning Commission.

Gordon, who is on leave from an administrative post at IBM, said she would like to run for the City Council one day.

“It really has been enlightening,” Gordon said of her crash course in city politics. “Prior to this, I really had no idea how the City Council operated.”