Oxnard : Planners to Consider Homes Near Airport

The Oxnard Planning Commission tonight will consider a Santa Barbara developer’s proposal for a single-family housing project on farmland across 5th Street from the Oxnard Airport.

As proposed by Laguna Pacific Development Corp., Patterson Park would include 216 houses on the southern 53 acres of the parcel, with the remaining 26 acres along 5th Street available for a park.

The Oxnard City Council approved the annexation and preliminary zoning for the project in December.

While supporting the proposal, Oxnard city planners are asking the commission to require the developer to assist first-time home buyers and set aside 10% of the units for buyers with low or moderate incomes.

Patterson Park is the second housing project proposed recently for agricultural land south of the airport. At a hearing two weeks ago, residents and others voiced concerns about the effect a 184-unit project west of Patterson Park might have on overcrowded schools, airport safety and disappearing farmland.

Despite their concerns over that project, proposed by the Temple City-based Allwin Development Corp., several opponents said Wednesday they probably would not object to Patterson Park.

Marshall MacKinen, director of Ventura County Airports, said Patterson Park is not as close to Oxnard Airport’s terminal or its helicopter flight paths as the other project.

“The bottom line is, if an airplane’s engine fails, the odds are the plane will fall on an open area rather than a house,” MacKinen said of the project to be reviewed tonight.