Huntsville city officials outlined a tentative plan Tuesday night for the shuttered Johnson High School campus, calling primarily for residential development with a possible small infusion of retail.

Speaking at a community meeting at the school, officials spelled out the challenges presented by the sprawling campus largely surrounded by single-family homes in northwest Huntsville.

City Administrator John Hamilton repeatedly said that a plan for the 44-acre site needs to be "friendly to the neighborhood."

While about 100 people attended the meeting, about a half-dozen spoke during a Q&A session at the end of the presentation and virtually all took some issue with the plan.

Among those with objections was Richard Showers, the seven-term city councilman who lost his seat last year to Devyn Keith - who led the meeting. Showers told Keith and the other officials that the people of northwest Huntsville did not need to be told what to do with the property.

The property is in the custody of the city of Huntsville after Huntsville City Schools closed Johnson last year when a replacement high school, Mae Jemison, was built nearby.

Showers also asked if the city received feedback on how best to utilize the former Grissom High School campus in southeast Huntsville and Hamilton responded that the northwest Huntsville community has had a stronger voice in the Johnson plans than the Grissom community had with that land.

"It's a different perspective and, again, with all due respect to all those who supported me and elect me to the position, it was to bring a different perspective," Keith said following the meeting. "I would have been shocked if going in a different direction wouldn't be uncomfortable."

Keith, Hamilton and city planner Dennis Madsen said the outlined plan was the result of several community meetings and feedback from area residents.

The reality of what happens to the Johnson site, Hamilton said, may end up looking nothing like the plan city officials touted Tuesday. The only use of the campus now is the Huntsville public safety training facility.

Hamilton said the city would release a request for proposal by Dec. 1 that would be broadly written. Developers will then make their own proposals for the land.

"The responses to the RFP do not have to be residential," Hamilton said.

Keith said his objective for the site is to "increase property value and quality of life."

As for the pushback at the meeting, Keith said, "There was nobody who said that's not a good idea. They just said they wanted their idea."

Ideas pitched at the meeting from those in attendance included a medical facility, a domed soccer field, advanced manufacturing and a fish farm.

"We cannot force markets," Keith said. "The market is demanding new housing that is high quality - not Section 8, not subsidized - and it's been successful in Huntsville."

The specifics of the plan outlined by city officials: