Airport Owners to Seek OK for Homes, Stores

An owner of Meadowlark Airport in Huntington Beach, site of several aircraft accidents in the past decade, said Saturday that his family wants to close the airport and build homes and a shopping center on the site.

Dick Y. Nerio said he and his brother, Art, have filed documents announcing their intention to close the airport the family has owned for 35 years. The Huntington Beach Planning Commission has scheduled a hearing for June 2 on the Nerios’ plans to develop the 65-acre property at Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica Street.

Nerio said the family would like to build a 15-acre shopping center and a tract of about 350 homes on the property.

“That area has been building pretty fast, so it makes good sense for us,” Nerio said. However, he added that “concerns about public safety” also figured in the family’s decision to try to convert the airport.

There have been nine accidents involving small aircraft at the airport in the past 10 years. Pilots and residents who live near the airport have attributed the problem to the small airstrip, which cannot be extended because it is wedged between housing tracts just east of Huntington Harbour.

Public concern grew between 1985 and 1986 when four major incidents in 11 months occurred at Meadowlark, only one of two municipal airports still in operation in the county. The other is Fullerton Municipal Airport.

Nerio, however, said that even if the city gave immediate approval to the development plan, it would be two years before the airport finally ceases operations.

“All this would take a long time,” he said.

Donald C. Dodge, a member of the Meadowlark Airport Board, an advisory committee of pilots and residents who live near the airport, said Saturday that he opposes the plan because of the shortage of space for small aircraft in the county. He said about 150 small aircraft are now tied down at Meadowlark.

“It would force the pilots to move their airplanes out of the county because there are no other facilities here,” he said. “There has been no consideration made for the relocation of the aircraft and what it would cost the pilots.”

Dodge, who has flown out of Meadowlark since 1976, admitted that public concern has been expressed about the safety at the airport.

“But the feeling is that we’d rather keep the airport than have the density (of new construction). There are those not keen on keeping the airport. But the density of people would be worse,” he said.

Dodge said that members of the board and residents who want to keep the airport will also present their case at the Planning Commission hearing.

“We’re in the process now of notifying residents about the hearing,” he said.

Dodge also said that “one alternative” being discussed by the board is finding land in the county that could be swapped to the Nerio family in exchange for the 65 acres at Meadowlark. He said Huntington Beach city officials will be lobbied to work toward that possibility.