THOUSAND OAKS : McDonald’s Request to Be Reconsidered

The Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday will reconsider McDonald’s Corp.’s request to erect a drive-through restaurant at the Oakbrook Plaza shopping center--a contentious issue that brought more than 100 protesters to the last public hearing.

After 5 1/2 hours of testimony and debate, the Planning Commission voted in mid-July to deny the application, due to concerns about increased traffic, pollution and litter.

But McDonald’s immediately appealed to the City Council. The company is requesting permission to build an outlet on the site of a former Marie Callender’s restaurant near the intersection of Avenida de Los Arboles and Erbes Road.

“If McDonald’s is approved, the whole community will win,” said Sandra Ayers, the company’s real estate representative in charge of obtaining permits.

In lobbying the Planning Commission to reject the fast-food restaurant, neighbors complained bitterly that a drive-through McDonald’s would generate unacceptable traffic and litter, and might even pollute the area with the smell of fried food.

Ayers, however, said the company had studied “all those issues and they have been shown not to be a problem.”

McDonald’s first tried to build a drive-through restaurant on a nearby lot in 1989, but the City Council voted down the proposal. The company filed another request with the city in 1990, but withdrew it before the public hearing.