City May Bar Security Poles at Office Depot

Council members of one of the safest cities in America are putting a new retailer on notice--unattractive security bars at the front entrance will have to go.

“They think they’re in L.A., and they’re not,” said Simi Valley Mayor Bill Davis about the new Office Depot store on Cochran Street, just east of Madera Road.

The discount office supply chain, which opened the first store in the $45-million Simi at the Plaza retail center, installed 4-foot steel poles to prevent automobiles from coming too close to the front doors.

The poles, each about a foot in diameter, are routine elements of Office Depot designs, according to company officials.

But city staff say the poles were not included in plans for the center that were approved by the Planning Commission and the City Council.

“If they’re not there, they’re history,” said Davis, adding that he sees no reason the store would need such security. Simi Valley was recently ranked as the second safest U.S. city with a population of 100,000 or more as measured by FBI statistics.

“I was shocked, and then I pointed them out to everybody,” said Councilwoman Barbra Williamson, who received a tour of the store last week. “I wouldn’t have approved them if they’d been there.”

Stan Rothbart, developer of the center, said he hopes a reasonable and mutually satisfactory solution can be reached.

“We are looking into what can be done,” he said, adding that he, too, has been in touch with Office Depot corporate officials. “I think we’ll work out a resolution shortly.”

Office Depot officials did not return phone calls, and local store manager Amy King said she could not comment on whether the store would remove the security poles.