McDonald’s in Safety Zone

On Nov. 6, you published letters from Phil Boyer of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. and David Ousley of the Ventura County Aviation Assn. attacking the proposed McDonald’s restaurant at Gold Coast Plaza Shopping Center in Oxnard.

Both letters erroneously state that the proposed McDonald’s restaurant is located beneath the runway clear zone of the Oxnard Airport. That is not the case.

McDonald’s is located outside of the runway clear zone, and its location is consistent with both the Oxnard General Plan and the state’s Airport Land Use Guidelines.

There are restaurants at every major airport in Southern California, including the Red Baron Steak and Seafood Co. at Oxnard Airport, which are closer to the runways than the McDonald’s project. Many of these restaurants are in fact operated by the airports themselves.

The Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor disaster in Sacramento 23 years ago has no application to the McDonald’s project conditions. McDonald’s would have to be proposing a restaurant literally on the airport runway directly on its center line in order to create a condition similar to the one at Farrell’s.

The McDonald’s project is not located in an unsafe place. The project has been consistently misrepresented by a few extremist airport advocates who are pursuing their own agenda. They are not concerned with safety--they are concerned with power and publicity.

It is time that they were held to the same standard of accountability and credibility as is required of us developers in presenting their case to the public.

ELLEN MICHIEL

Assistant Vice President

Raznick & Sons Inc.

Woodland Hills