McDonald’s Again Seeks to Move Into Shopping Mall : Thousand Oaks: Chain failed before to locate in the Oakbrook center. Some residents say there are already enough restaurants in the complex.

McDonald’s failed once in an effort to move into the Oakbrook shopping center in Thousand Oaks. Mobil Oil Corp. failed twice. And now McDonald’s is back to try again.

The fast-food restaurant chain is hoping the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission will buy its plans to sell Big Macs in what is now a vacant Marie Callender’s in the shopping center.

McDonald’s Corp. wants to purchase the building near Avenida de Los Arboles and Erbes Road to open a restaurant with drive-through service.

“I know residents are concerned about the fast-food image, but this will be of the very best quality,” said Charles Cohen, an attorney representing First State Bank of the Oaks, the owner of the building. “Of all the food chains, McDonald’s is the best corporate citizen in the country.”

But the McDonald’s proposal is already causing concern among neighbors of the shopping center. They say there are already about a dozen restaurants in the center and that they don’t need any more.

McDonald’s spokesman Larry Messerschmidt did not return phone calls Thursday.

But the restaurant giant, which previously had tried without success to build a store in the shopping center, knows it is facing a tough customer.

Neighbors recently rallied against plans for construction of a Mobil gas station in the shopping center parking lot, and won. It was the second time the city had vetoed plans for a gas station.

The complaints against McDonald’s are similar to those lodged against Mobil: too much traffic, litter, noise and pollution.

“Another fast-food restaurant or any intensive use is going to really compromise the quality of the area,” resident Frank Millar said. “We’re just trying to protect our home values, that’s all.”

Millar, who led the opposition against McDonald’s earlier attempt to locate in the shopping center, said residents plan to protest the new proposal when it comes before the Planning Commission on June 28. McDonald’s requires a special permit for drive-through service.

Millar said he is confident planning officials will side with residents.

“The city listens to the people,” Millar said. “That’s what makes it a good place to live.”

McDonald’s won Planning Commission approval in 1989 to build a restaurant on a vacant site it owns in the shopping center. Residents, however, filed an appeal, and the City Council rejected the project.

Bowing to pressure from residents, the council later changed the zoning on the vacant site to prohibit a fast-food restaurant.

Forrest Frields, chairman of the Planning Commission, said that while residents may have legitimate concerns about the new McDonald’s proposal, it is altogether different than the company’s original plans.

First, he said, McDonald’s would be in a building previously occupied by another restaurant. He said the new McDonald’s would be farther from the busy Avenida de Los Arboles and Erbes Road intersection than the restaurant McDonald’s had planned to build several years ago.

It would also have more parking and more surrounding space, Frields said. The only difference would be the drive-through window.