Supermarket Project Gets a Hearing Tonight : Simi Valley: Petitions have circulated on both sides of issue. But 700 people signed document opposing retailer’s building proposal.

Simi Valley residents opposed to plans to locate a supermarket in their neighborhood are expected to voice their opposition to the project at tonight’s Planning Commission hearing.

The Smith’s Food & Drug Centers proposal for a 59,000-square-foot supermarket at Alamo Street and Sycamore Drive has drawn both protest and vocal support from area residents who have fought over the project for nine years.

About 200 residents signed a petition supporting the project, and the area’s Neighborhood Council supported building a market on the now-vacant grassy lot.

But nearly 700 residents signed a different petition, complaining that the noise, traffic and smog the supermarket would bring to the area would devalue their homes.

Indeed, city officials said this would be the first supermarket in the city to back up to single-story houses. And to approve this project, the Planning Commission would have to amend the city’s General Plan--the guiding document for development in the city.

Twice before, Smith’s officials have requested the General Plan amendment to change the parcel’s zoning and allow for construction of a supermarket instead of condominiums. Both times the request was denied by the Planning Commission and the City Council.

But Smith’s representatives said they have changed their project substantially since they last tried to gain city approval in 1988.

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Now, with a redesigned project that would push the market closer to the Simi Valley Freeway and provide landscaping on one acre of the 9.5-acre property, representatives from Smith’s will again appeal to the commission for its approval.

“We think this is one of the best projects to come along in years,” said Fred Madjar, Smith’s Simi Valley-based planning consultant. “This will be much more lavish than any residential project that could be built there.”

Madjar said the new plans include lush landscaping along Alamo Street, restricted hours for trucks and access to the market near the freeway on-ramp.

But residents said their fears have not been adequately addressed.

“This is going to destroy our neighborhood,” said Deborah Wilson, whose Woodrow Avenue home backs up to the flat corner lot.

“I don’t see any sign that this market will not bring the crime, the noise, the smell of diesel trucks, the dirt and the traffic that we all know that projects like this bring,” she said.

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“There is no reason that this has to be built in a residential neighborhood,” she said. “There is plenty of room in the city in areas that don’t back right up into people’s yards.”

And no matter how many concessions that Smith’s agrees to make in developing the property, commissioners said the decision will likely come down to one question: Is building a commercial center on the parcel consistent with the city’s long-range plans.

“They can offer the sun and the moon and the stars, but the zoning has to do with the codes and nothing else,” Commissioner Michael Piper said. “You have to ignore these nice offers because if we change the zoning to commercial, everything about the project could change.”

Commissioner Richard Kunz said Smith’s will have a difficult task trying to prove that the supermarket will not disrupt the neighborhood.

“I consider the General Plan to be the critical document in guiding my decisions,” he said. “When we’re asked to change the General Plan, there has to be a pretty compelling reason for us to do it.”