Dining Truckers Targeted in Traffic Crackdown : Simi Valley: Officials want to discourage them from pulling off the freeway and parking in a residential area so they can eat at a fast-food site.

Truckers who have been breaking traffic laws to chow down at a new McDonald’s in Simi Valley may soon find the fast-food stop a lot less inviting.

The City Council approved several traffic crackdown measures Monday, targeting truckers in an effort to discourage them from pulling off the freeway and driving to the edge of a quiet residential neighborhood.

Neighbors have complained that truckers were parking illegally near the restaurant and causing safety hazards as they pulled into and out of the McDonald’s.

To support their protest, residents recently showed the council photographs of trucks parked illegally and making hazardous U-turns near the restaurant’s entrance.

“The law is the law and if they’re breaking it, they should be ticketed,” said Councilwoman Barbara Williamson.

In ordering the crackdown, the council instructed city staff members to have curbs next to the restaurant painted red for no parking. The restaurant is on Yosemite Avenue, just north of the Simi Valley Freeway.

Also, city crews will post a “No U-turn” sign on Yosemite Avenue near the restaurant’s entrance, and police will increase patrols in the area.

And the city will ask the California Highway Patrol to ticket truckers who park on nearby freeway ramps.

Finally, the city will ask Caltrans to post “No Parking” signs on the ramps and install other signs on the freeway to remind drivers that Yosemite Avenue is not a truck route.

Mayor Greg Stratton said the traffic control measures near the McDonald’s were justified and should help discourage truckers from illegal parking.

“It probably doesn’t take too many tickets before they decide to wander down the road to the next hamburger place,” Stratton said.

The mayor also said, “I’ve had some truckers say they feel discriminated against.”

In March, 1992, Stratton voted against construction of the restaurant, citing potential traffic problems. But the council deadlocked 2 to 2, allowing the Planning Commission’s earlier approval of the project to stand.

Councilwoman Sandi Webb voted in support of the restaurant in 1992. But she said Monday that more traffic enforcement is needed.

“I definitely think the police can patrol the area a little more,” she said. “It definitely concerns me when the big trucks park on the west side of Yosemite. It’s already posted (as a no-parking zone), so we could be ticketing them.

“If painting the curb red would make it more visible to these guys, then get out the paint.”

The protest was organized by members of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley, a northeast Simi Valley homeowners group. The organization was formed in late 1991 by residents who tried to block construction of the McDonald’s.

At that time, members of the group said they were concerned that the restaurant would bring traffic, crime and noise problems into their neighborhood. Last month, they said the photographs they took showed that their concerns over traffic problems had materialized.

The residents argued that no trucks should be allowed to pull off the freeway to stop at the McDonald’s because Yosemite Avenue is not a truck route.

But city staff members said judges will not uphold a ticket given to a trucker who drives a short distance off a legal truck route merely to obtain food or use restrooms.

Still, to discourage truckers from visiting the McDonald’s, city staff members said the council could request that the restaurant’s owner post a sign prohibiting trucks weighing over five tons in the parking lot.

But shortly before the meeting, Sandra Ayers, a McDonald’s corporate executive, told city staff members that the restaurant would not post such a sign.

Ronald C. Coons, the city’s public works director, said Ayers was concerned that such a sign would keep delivery trucks and some recreational vehicles out of the lot.

Neither Ayers nor Jim Powell, the restaurant’s owner, attended Monday’s meeting.

Council members instructed city staff to contact McDonald’s officials again to propose a new sign that would ban only commercial vehicles weighing over five tons, with the exception of delivery trucks.

Several neighbors said they were pleased by the city’s parking crackdown, but disappointed by the position of McDonald’s officials. “If you don’t deny the trucks access to the McDonald’s lot, you can’t stop them from getting off the freeway,” neighbor Eileen Gordon said.