Oak Park Residents Denounce Gas Station Plan

OAK PARK —  There is no room for negotiation. On that, the residents of Oak Park and the advisory council that represents the small unincorporated community agree.

In their second scathing attack on a proposal to bring a Texaco gas station and 24-hour convenience store to their neighborhood, residents made it clear that they had no intention of negotiating with the oil giant over how the proposed mini-mart will look, what it will sell or what fast-food restaurant will be installed in the high-tech center.

“We are not going to tolerate a Texaco or a mini-mart in our neighborhood,” said Ruth Rose, the chief organizer of the Say No to Texaco Committee, which has gathered more than 1,200 signatures from Oak Park residents and their neighbors in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood of North Ranch.

Although Texaco has yet to file plans for the station, residents have launched an all-out war against the proposal to turn 3.7 acres purchased in December into a high-tech gas station with an all-hours mini-mart and major fast-food restaurant.

By maintaining strong opposition to the plan early, residents are hoping to prevent it from ever making it to the county’s Planning Commission.

After listening Tuesday to more than an hour of opposition to the station, the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council gave residents what they wanted.

Without debate, they unanimously passed a resolution against allowing any “development of the commercial lot at the corner of Kanan and Lindero Canyon roads that is inconsistent with the current commercial development in Oak Park.”

That means no gas stations, mini-marts and carwashes--all of which are elements of Texaco’s plan.

But Texaco officials were undaunted by the news. Officials said Wednesday that they plan to move forward with the project despite the community’s objections.

“Our plan is to build a station,” said Phil Blackburn, a Texaco spokesman in Universal City. “We are evaluating the input of the citizens. . . . We have heard various suggestions, and we are going to take them into consideration when we come forward with a proposal.”

There was little evidence at Tuesday’s meeting that residents will ever back down.

Instead, there was talk by residents of boycotting the station and sending their cut-up credit cards to the county Planning Commission to emphasize their hard-line stance on the matter.

Nearly all agreed with the approach, booing and hissing two residents who dared to suggest they might be better off compromising now rather than fighting the project and losing.

“You are welcome to move back to the [San Fernando] Valley,” Oak Park resident Erin Kutnick shouted to one dissenter.

The highlight of their attack included a videotape from an episode of the TV show “20/20” on the dangers of working in a 24-hour convenience stores.

In it, hidden security cameras showed cashiers being robbed, and sometimes killed, by gunmen seeking a quick buck, bolstering residents’ fears that a mini-mart would bring more crime to their bedroom community.

Moreover, residents said the station would bring more traffic and pollution to the area.

But, with only an advisory vote to the County Board of Supervisors, council members warned the anxious group that there is little they can do to stop the project from moving forward if the county Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors find it an acceptable use of the commercially zoned property.

Texaco officials are not legally bound to seek the council’s approval before taking the project to county officials, they said.

“They can bypass us and go directly to the Planning Commission, and then you will start your fight there,” said Kent Behringer, a member of the community’s advisory council.