Neighbors’ Cameras Focus on Truck Traffic at McDonald’s : Simi Valley: Residents who lost fight to keep the restaurant out of the area are shooting pictures of the drivers’ transgressions.

A homeowners group in northeast Simi Valley couldn’t keep Ronald McDonald from moving into its neighborhood earlier this year.

Now that he’s arrived, they’re trying to make darned sure that he toes the line.

Cameras are the weapon of choice in the latest Big Mac attack by Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley.

Its members moved into position in the hills overlooking a new McDonald’s restaurant at Yosemite Avenue and the Simi Valley Freeway. They snapped pictures of truck drivers who may have been breaking the law when they pulled off the highway to grab a burger, fries and a shake.

The activists recently flashed their slide photos inside the City Council chambers and prodded elected leaders into ordering a review of traffic problems at the hamburger haven.

“Yosemite is being turned into a truck route, and McDonald’s is being turned into a truck stop,” asserts Melanie Wank, co-chairwoman of the homeowners group.

She says the busy fast-food restaurant should never have been built next to a quiet residential neighborhood. Now, Wank says, her group is merely trying to make sure the eatery lives up to its good-neighbor pledges.

“We’ve all eaten at McDonald’s restaurants many times,” she insists. “We have no vendetta against McDonald’s.”

But Andy Karr, manager of the Yosemite site, isn’t so sure.

“I think they’re looking for things to complain about,” he says. “It’s like a crusade.”

Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley was formed in late 1991 by residents who feared the proposed fast-food restaurant would bring traffic, crime and noise problems into their upscale neighborhood.

Despite their protests, the project was approved by city officials.

Yet the objections did not end there.

Long before it opened, a city planning commissioner, who formerly belonged to the group, sent a letter to a McDonald’s executive, warning that angry residents might picket the restaurant and direct customers to the In-N-Out Burger at the next exit.

While construction was under way, the homeowner group, which has about 40 core members, challenged way the grading was being done.

When the restaurant opened in April, the residents told city leaders that a giant promotional balloon of Ronald McDonald was unsightly and unsafe.

They complained that the parking lot lights were too bright and that the restaurant should not be open round the clock.

“We do want (McDonald’s executives) to keep their promises,” says Wendy Young, a member of the organization. “I don’t think it’s a crusade. We’ve put a lot of hours into researching things, instead of just acting from an emotional point of view.”

Hungry truckers are the group’s latest target.

Trucks weighing more than five tons are prohibited on Yosemite, and the McDonald’s parking lot was not designed to accommodate big trucks.

Yet Simi Valley Police Sgt. Jeff Malgren, who supervises traffic enforcement, says his officers are reluctant to ticket truckers who leave the freeway and drive a few feet onto Yosemite to get some grub.

“If they’re just going into McDonald’s for some food or something, I wouldn’t see that as a violation of the prohibition against driving along a non-truck route,” Malgren says.

The neighborhood activists have taken pictures of truckers who have illegally parked their rigs on freeway ramps, then hiked up the hill to McDonald’s. Malgren said the California Highway Patrol must cite these drivers.

City police do ticket truckers who leave their vehicles on Yosemite, where parking is prohibited. But the McDonald’s lot is private property, and police cannot crack down on trucks parking there.

Karr, the McDonald’s manager, says he would be breaking the law himself if he tried to turn truckers away. “You can’t deny a motorist food or fuel,” he says.

Karr insists that the fast-food stop is a good neighbor. “We go up and down the street a quarter-mile in each direction picking up trash, even if it’s not from McDonald’s,” he says.

He adds: “Our driveway is 10 feet off the freeway, and the closest house is a quarter-mile down the road. Even then, there are no houses facing Yosemite. “

But Mayor Greg Stratton, who voted against the McDonald’s when it was proposed, says the neighborhood activists have a right to say “I told you so” because they accurately predicted traffic problems.

He says McDonald’s executives “need to start discouraging truckers from coming there. I don’t know how you do that except by telling them they can’t park in the lot.”

Stratton said city staff members are reviewing the traffic issues and will propose solutions to the council within a month.

Councilwoman Judy Mikels, who voted for the restaurant, says the city should not tell McDonald’s who can park in their lot. What is needed, she says, are more warning signs and tickets for illegal parking and turning maneuvers on the public streets near McDonald’s.

But after these steps are taken, Mikels believes the neighborhood activists should give Ronald McDonald a break.

“Once we’ve looked at this and made a judgment call,” Mikels says, “then I think it’s time for them to go on to other things.”