Warbird Information Exchange

After circling a 111-acre site just north of
Greenfield for the past 22 years, an ambitious
development centered around a historic aircraft
museum is finally touching down on the ground.

Grading work — putting in streets and utility lines
— began a month ago on a 35-acre portion of the
site projected to be the Northern California home of
the Yanks Air Museum.

Developers of the project, first proposed in 1988,
announced the long-aborning start of construction
on the project Thursday.

"We started getting calls from people seeing the
yellow machines out there, asking, 'Are those yours?
Something is happening?'" said Dave Moore,
president of the air museum, which is located in
Chino.

The project ultimately calls for a 250,000-square-
foot museum, 150-room hotel, restaurants, a
theater, an education center, an RV park, an airstrip,
a winery and other tourist amenities.

The development received a $2.2 million federal
economic development grant years ago to connect t
he site to Greenfield's water and sewer systems.

Greenfield has long supported the proposed Yanks
Air Museum as a means of providing a diverse boost
to the community's economy. The complete project
would provide an estimated 300 to 400 jobs.

"We are excited for the project. It's a key catalyst
project," said Paul Mugan, the city's redevelopment
and housing director.

Mugan said the recent grading work is a critical
"first step" toward making the project a reality.

"They are

excited about it," Mugan said of the developers. "I
talk to them once a week." Until recently, they didn't
have much new about the project to talk about, he
said.

Art Aviles, chairman of the museum foundation, said
grading work and completion of the 80-space RV
park should be done by the end of March in the first
phase of the project. The museum building will be
started in the second phase.

There is no definite timetable for the rest of the
project, but Aviles said, "We will forge ahead and get
it built."

"It's a good three- to five-year project," he said.

The Yanks Air Museum owns about 165 restored
aircraft, ranging from a Wright Flyer to modern jets,
according to a project press release. The plan is to
share its collection of aircraft and aviation items
between the Greenfield and Chino museums.

The project, when first proposed, stirred some
controversy before the Monterey County Board of
Supervisors because the site was in farmland zoning
outside the city of Greenfield. As a condition of
project approval, 300 acres of other farmland were
put under permanent agricultural zoning.

Mindful of the project's long history, Aviles
quipped, "We were on the fast track for permitting."