Simi Activists Gain Clout Amid Battles With Developers

Shell Oil Co. executives figured they’d found the perfect place for a new gas station, mini-mart and car wash.

The acre on Yosemite Avenue, right next to Simi Valley Freeway and just down the hill from a bustling, upscale neighborhood, was already zoned for commercial use.

But at Wednesday’s Simi Valley Planning Commission, a feisty homeowners group methodically torched the oil giant’s plan.

Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley, still less than a year old, demonstrated again that it has become a force to be reckoned with at City Hall.

The group had earlier fought to keep a McDonald’s and a shooting range out of its northeast neighborhood. On Wednesday, the group’s leaders used slides, pie charts and statistical printouts to hammer home their complaints about potential traffic and crime problems at the Shell station site.

They quoted city codes and General Plan provisions. They insisted that the gas station did not comply with Simi Valley’s development rules, even though the city’s planning staff said it did.

When the hearing ended, the commission sided with the homeowners in a 3-2 vote.

“It just knocked me over,” Commissioner Bill Souder said of the homeowners’ detailed presentation. “It was so different from the typical comments people make (to the Planning Commission). They say, ‘I don’t like that project. It’s ugly, and it’s too close to my home.’ ”

Souder is well-acquainted with Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley. The planning commissioner is a former member of the group.

He joined late last year when the group was formed to oppose plans for a McDonald’s restaurant adjacent to the Shell site. He resigned when he was appointed to the Planning Commission in March.

The activists feared that the restaurant, like the Shell station, would bring traffic, crime and noise. They also said the fast-food business would be a blemish against the hillsides and that its 25-foot-tall sign would make a poor first impression on motorists entering the city.

Simi Valley’s City Council split 2 to 2 on the project, leaving an earlier Planning Commission approval intact.

Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley was more successful when it presented 1,000 signatures and raised noise and safety concerns about a proposed outdoor shooting range. The council then abandoned it.

After the Shell hearing, Souder said his former cohorts have become increasingly sophisticated.

“We kind of floundered at first,” he said. “There’s been a tremendous change since I was a part of the group. Now they know exactly what documents to obtain and how to address them.”

Now that the Shell project has been derailed, the group is gearing up to fight plans for a 150-acre cemetery along Kuehner Drive near the freeway because the developer proposes to sell a portion of the land for a commercial project.

The group, which has about 40 core members and support from 300 other households, has also prepared a broad agenda of citywide goals.

The activists want to create a scenic corridor to restrict development adjacent to the Simi Valley Freeway. They want to toughen Simi Valley’s sign ordinance and they are lobbying for firefighter paramedics.

“It began as being a reactive group with the McDonald’s and Shell projects,” said Melanie Wank, co-president. “But we want to go far beyond that.”

The organization has vowed not to endorse candidates in the Nov. 3 City Council race. But Eileen Gordon--who has stepped down temporarily as president, yet remains active in the group--is managing council candidate Tim Hodge’s campaign.

Gordon said Hodge is aligned with the group on some issues but is running an independent campaign.

“We don’t view ourselves in an adversarial way,” Wank said. “When you get involved in a political campaign, you’re someone’s adversary.”

Still, Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley has ruffled some feathers during its short existence. Its leaders admit that they have been called elitists and NIMBYs--an acronym for protesters who insist: “Not in My Back Yard.”

“We happen to live in a neighborhood that is upscale and scenic,” said Lesley Barncard, the group’s other co-president. “But our goals are citywide and shared by many people in other areas.”

Added Gordon: “We are NIMBYs. We consider Simi Valley to be our back yard. We’re concerned about it in total.”

Not everyone agrees.

Aaron Starr, vice chairman of Neighborhood Council No. 4, an advisory panel that serves the far eastern part of the city, believes that leaders of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley are mainly concerned about keeping cars and businesses out of their hillside community.

“They want to push their burden of traffic and development onto the rest of us,” he said. “They don’t want to carry their fair share of the development and the traffic.

“They would rather come down from their hill, travel on our streets in front of our houses to do their shopping, and then escape back into their hillside.”

Starr questioned the group’s methods, such as its assertion that the Shell station would bring crime into the neighborhood. At Wednesday’s hearing, a member of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley told planning commissioners that robbers often target small businesses that are open all night and located near a freeway--such as the proposed gas station.

“It’s sort of like blaming the bank robberies on the banks that moved in,” Starr said. “If there weren’t any banks, there wouldn’t be any bank robberies.”

Shell executive Dug Smith also challenged some of the group’s objections. “They quoted a lot of statistics, but were they germane?” Smith asked.

He said the activists cited numerous traffic problems, even though the city’s traffic engineer and an outside consultant said the plan was acceptable. Shell now must decide whether to revise the plan or appeal to the City Council, Smith said.

Despite these questions, leaders of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley said they had been confident their multipronged Shell protest would work.

“This group did their homework and research, and spent hundreds of hours on it,” Gordon said. “We did not think any reasonable person could accept this project with the concerns we presented.”

Council members give the group mixed reviews.

“From what I’ve seen, they have made some good presentations,” Mayor Greg Stratton said. “They seem to be reasonably intelligent and cogent.”

Councilwoman Sandi Webb said she sided with the group on the gun range but not on the McDonald’s. She said a hill behind the restaurant will be an adequate buffer between it and the homes.

“There are going to be issues where we very much agree and those where we disagree,” Webb said. “They are concerned citizens, and I respect that.”

Councilman Bill Davis does not believe the citizens group will be able to draw broad support outside the northeast neighborhoods. “I think there are too many other organizations in the other neighborhoods,” Davis said.

Nevertheless, leaders of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley say their goals are within reach. They are making plans to broaden their membership, raise funds and set up regular public meetings as a first step toward changing the city’s development rules.

“These aren’t going to be accomplished overnight,” said co-president Wank. “We’re looking at a matter of years--not weeks or overnight.”