Policy That Smells

Why have we spent years developing a strict but fair planning policy in Thousand Oaks when, even after all these codes are followed, a small group of neighborhood aristocrats can rezone a shopping center overnight?

The McDonald’s fiasco is the perfect example of this whole mess (“McDonalds Denied in No Short Order,” July 14). What kind of message are we sending to out-of-town companies when such absurd objections as the smell of french fries can sway city policy?

Investment involves a great amount of risk for any size business. Entrepreneurs rely upon a set of rules--rules that one can count upon to remain the same. In effect, planners have been changing the rules to suit their own private political agendas.

Don’t they realize that we are in a recession? Can we afford to be so discriminating? I have not seen a list of companies vying for each open space.

What people like Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski are saying is that they neither care about the General Plan for the city, nor do they believe in following it. They are anti-business, plain and simple. They have voted against virtually every new proposed merchant regardless of the situation.

It’s time for business to stop being abused and associated with campaign slogan mentalities that blame every city growth problem on “greedy” business people.

J. BRENT DOXSEE

Thousand Oaks