SIMI VALLEY : New Service Station OKd Over Protests

The Simi Valley City Council has approved the city’s first new gas station in more than a decade, despite passionate testimony against the project.

After a lively discussion, the council on Monday night unanimously denied an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision to allow Shell to build a 24-hour service station next to a McDonald’s on Yosemite Avenue at the Simi Valley Freeway.

Mayor Greg Stratton, who filed the appeal along with Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, said he was satisfied with the changes Shell made to the project.

“It looks like Shell has gone a long way to meet the traffic concerns of the residents,” Stratton said.

However, opponents from the nearby Indian Hills neighborhood argued that the gas station would increase crime, noise and traffic hazards in the area. They also said congestion caused by large trucks jamming Yosemite as they head for McDonald’s will only get worse if a station is built on the adjoining site.

Resident Regina Walczak said she was launching a boycott of Shell and McDonald’s.

“The majority of you are determined to turn the corner of 118 and Yosemite into a truck stop,” Walczak told the council as she pulled a pair of scissors from her purse and snipped her Shell credit card into tiny pieces.

But Shell spokesman Larry S. Turner said the company had agreed not to sell diesel fuel for trucks at the station.

In order to appease residents, the company also agreed to pay $75,000 toward a new traffic signal on Yosemite, construct a sound wall to reduce the noise of the carwash, post signs saying truck diesel fuel is not sold at the station and move a gas pump that residents said would pose a traffic hazard.

Turner said he hopes to have the station open for operation within six months.