HUNTINGTON BEACH : Council to Consider Development Plans

The City Council on Monday night will consider a major step in transforming the old Meadowlark Airport into a residential-commercial complex.

The site of the former small-plane airport is on 63 acres between Warner and Heil avenues, near Huntington Harbour.

The council is scheduled to discuss a proposed map that would divide the old airport into 14 acres for a shopping center and 49 acres for construction of new homes.

Hal Simmons, a senior planner for the city, said the map approval would be the last step before construction of the shopping center.

He said the proposed commercial complex, facing Warner Avenue at the intersection of Roosevelt Lane, could be under construction this spring and possibly completed a year from now.

The residential development still must await final approval of tract maps, Simmons said. “I think residential construction is at least a year away,” he said.

A development agreement between the Nerio family, which owns the old airport, and city government was ironed out in 1989, the year the airport closed.

That agreement, which is like a contract, allows the Nerios to use part of the land for commercial development and the bulk of the property for new residences.

Simmons said the development agreement allows 600 new homes to be built. He said those residences would be a combination of single-family homes, apartments and condominiums.

The housing development will add about 1,500 new residents to the area.

The proposed commercial development at the airport site has produced almost no opposition.

But some residents around the site have in the past protested the plans for the new housing.

In March, 1991, opponents of the new housing at the airport site argued before the council that the construction would worsen crime, traffic, noise and parking problems.

The council, however, approved the housing plans on March 25, 1991, by a 4-3 vote.

Will Project Fly? Former airport site set for mixed-use development