THOUSAND OAKS : Drive-Through Restaurant Rejected

The Thousand Oaks City Council has turned down the McDonald’s Corp.’s request to build a drive-through restaurant in the Oakbrook Plaza on Avenida de los Arboles.

Rejecting the testimony of a half-dozen expert witnesses hired by McDonald’s, the City Council decided that the fast-food restaurant would create too many traffic, noise and pollution problems.

The vote--deadlocked 2-2, with Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Alex Fiore supporting McDonald’s application and Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski rejecting it--effectively upheld an earlier Planning Commission decision to deny the project.

Councilman Frank Schillo abstained from the vote because he owns some stock in First State Bank of the Oaks, which owns the Oakbrook Plaza.

Several dozen area residents, who circulated petitions and packed the council chambers to protest McDonald’s plans, cheered heartily when the decision was announced.

In impassioned testimony, they insisted that a fast-food restaurant, especially a drive-through attracting an estimated 1,500 cars a day, would create backups in nearby intersections, wake them up with early morning traffic and pollute the neighborhood with litter and French-fry smells.

Although McDonald’s could still open a restaurant at the site by eliminating the drive-through, a real estate representative for McDonald’s said the corporation had no plans for a sit-down restaurant.

“We’ll need to digest this decision and take it into consideration,” Sandra Ayres said. “I don’t even know if that’s an option.”