Foes Vow to Continue Fight After Simi OKs McDonald’s : Development: Opponents of the proposed site near the Indian Hills neighborhood will meet Friday to discuss possible legal action against the city.

McDonald’s has survived the latest Big Mac attack.

But critics of the fast-food restaurant, to be built in eastern Simi Valley, vow to continue their fight to keep it out of their Indian Hills neighborhood.

Residents fear that the restaurant will disturb the neighborhood’s rural atmosphere by bringing increased traffic, litter and even crime to the area.

The latest turn of events came late Monday when the City Council was unable to break a 2-2 deadlock on the development proposal.

So an earlier decision by the Planning Commission to allow the project will stand.

Councilman Bill Davis, who lives near the restaurant site, did not participate in the council’s discussion.

McDonald’s Corp. can now move ahead with plans to build a 4,680-square-foot restaurant complete with drive-through service at the northwest corner of Yosemite Avenue and the Simi Valley Freeway. The restaurant, the third McDonald’s in the city, would be the only commercial enterprise in the area.

McDonald’s official John Dawson said residents had nothing to fear. He said the company will do everything it can to ensure that the project does not alter the character of the neighborhood.

“We’re not going to create a lot of traffic, crime or litter,” he said. “It’s just not going to happen. . . . We’re going to be great neighbors.”

But more than 50 residents, who either spoke out against the plan during a three-hour hearing Monday night or filed written complaints with city officials, disagree.

Earlier hearings on the project drew crowds of up to 100 opponents of the plan.

Daniel Fanizzo, a 30-year resident, told the council Monday that he feared that the restaurant and its 25-foot sign would forever alter the scenic beauty of the hillsides.

“It’s an intrusion. . . . “ he said. “You have a moral obligation to consider the needs of the people first.”

Resident Louise Shearer said she felt that the city must preserve what open space it has left. “Do we really need a McDonald’s, or do we need more open spaces, not just for ourselves but for our children and our grandchildren?”

Others complained that the restaurant will greatly increase traffic--up to 3,000 vehicle trips a day--on an already busy road.

They said a study that concluded that the traffic increase was not significant was inadequate because it did not include traffic that would be generated by a proposed gas station nearby.

Mayor Greg Stratton and Councilman Michael Piper agreed and asked that a combined traffic study be done and sent back to the Planning Commission for its reconsideration.

But council members Judy Mikels and Sandi Webb objected, insisting that the council make a decision one way or the other.

Both said they thought that the residents’ fears were unwarranted.

Mikels said she felt the project site was not part of the Indian Hills neighborhood, which is separated from the restaurant by hills.

“I do not find that this is in a residential neighborhood,” Mikels said. “This is a major arterial near a freeway off-ramp.”

If the residents want the property to remain as open space, they should buy the land, she said.

“We can’t condemn it just because everyone wants to look at it,” she said.

Mikels and Webb both said they stood by the results of the traffic study on the project.

“There is no proof from the professional engineers that we have a problem,” Mikels said.

But Stratton said he agreed with residents that the McDonald’s would change the character of Indian Hills.

“We’re invading their neighborhood with a fast-food restaurant,” he said. “If I were in their shoes, I would certainly want to protect my neighborhood.”

“I’m so disillusioned,” Eileen Gordon, one of the organizers of the neighborhood group that opposed the project, said after Monday night’s meeting. “What I saw tonight was irresponsible.”

Gordon’s group, Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley, vowed to continue their efforts to stop the project.

Group members said they will meet Friday to discuss what options they have, including possible legal action against the city.

“You can run and give up or you can continue to fight until the bitter end,” Gordon said. “And I’m fighting.”