Neighbors Object to New McDonald’s

McDonald’s arches don’t look golden to a group of east Ventura residents, who say the chain’s proposed restaurant there would bring traffic, trash and frying odors to their peaceful neighborhood.

Fast food isn’t homey, said resident Katheryne Ferreira, at a city meeting earlier this month. She, like many of her neighbors, would prefer offices, a bank or at least a swankier eatery where a closed Bank of America branch stands at the corner of Petit Avenue and Telephone Road.

In restaurant-poor east Ventura, Ferreira and her neighbors have to drive miles for anything other than fast food. With McDonald’s, they fear they’ll get what they consider a grease trap and a magnet for troublemakers.

But while they don’t want McDonald’s, McDonald’s wants them. With more than 20,000 potential customers within a few miles, east Ventura has classic McDonald’s demographics, said Jim Carras, Woodland Hills-based director of development for McDonald’s Corp.

“It’s families; it’s middle-income with kids; there’s literally nothing there except a Pizza Hut across the street,” Carras said. “There’s certainly a glaring need.”

Little stands in McDonald’s way. The narrow, comma-shaped strip is zoned for a restaurant and the only hurdle is City Hall approval for minor architectural changes.

Property owner Harry Selvin, president of Thousand Oaks-based Selvin Properties, said he would have entertained other offers for the site, including an independent restaurant, which he believes would have prospered. But other than a proposal from a video store--which fell through--McDonald’s has been virtually the only suitor.

“We leased it to them and, frankly, I thought it would be a very good asset to the community,” Selvin said of the deal made with McDonald’s in mid-1999.

City officials say they’re only following procedures for the commercially zoned land, although some members of the Design Review Committee, which will approve or deny the architectural changes, expect the City Council to make the final decision.

“If we turn down the project then I’m positive McDonald’s will appeal it to the City Council,” said committee member Curt Stiles. “If we allow it to go ahead, it will be appealed by the neighborhood.”

The controversy has left most involved wondering how things got this far. Businesses on the other three corners of the intersection went in without a problem, but with McDonald’s, residents now have a problem.

While the concerns of the immediate neighbors are important, Carras said, there are still other people in east Ventura.

“We’re not building the store for 20 or 30 homeowners, we’re building it for 20,000 people,” he said.

Indeed, some welcome McDonald’s, especially teens. Zachary Lawson, 15, wants one in east Ventura, and 16-year-old Vanessa Carrillo, who lives five blocks from Petit Avenue, said there’s “nothing to eat” in her neighborhood.

But the mix of teenagers and this intersection also has some neighbors worried. Two school bus stops are next to the site, and residents think of November, when 14-year-old Billie Brooks was killed on Telephone Road at the intersection when he ran across the street to catch his bus and was hit by a car.

Joseph Richards, Ventura Unified School District’s assistant superintendent for business services, said the district evaluates bus stops every year and if one becomes too busy for kids, it is moved.

Still, residents say McDonald’s doesn’t belong. They’ve packed meetings about the architectural changes, collected 285 signatures opposing the project and are contemplating several options, including hiring an attorney to fight it in court or asking McDonald’s to keep the lighting from spilling past their property line.

“It’s a risk either way,” resident Stephanie Hagy said, adding that if neighbors fight it and lose, they may get no concessions at all from McDonald’s.

Company representatives say they will build a wall next to an adjacent home, that its employees will pick up trash a block beyond the property lines and that large trash bins will be inside the building.

They also held a neighborhood meeting at the bank in December to discuss concerns.

“We have a history of working with neighborhoods, not against neighborhoods,” Carras said.