Navy and Marine Corps may turn over land to state
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have proposed turning 44 acres of federal land on Oahu and Molokai over to state ownership.
Gov. Josh Green on Thursday announced the planned transfer, which is subject to federal environmental reviews, due diligence and other procedural requirements including compliance with federal property disposal regulations.
Two parcels are intended for transfer. One is a 32-acre site at the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station in Kalaeloa that includes warehouses currently used by the state to accommodate film and TV productions.
Green said the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s Creative Industries Division plans to continue using the property as production infrastructure if the state takes ownership of the property, which borders parts of Midway Street and Ranger Road next to Kalaeloa Airport and would allow the state to expand use of the property for film, TV and other creative-industry workforce development.
The other parcel is a 12-acre Marine Corps training area next to the Molokai airport. Green said his administration will work with community stakeholders and appropriate state agencies to determine this property’s future stewardship and use if acquired.
No anticipated timetable for ownership transfers was stated.
Green said the initiative to transfer ownership of the parcels reflects desires by communities across the state to have federal land, much of which was seized, returned when no longer needed.
“I thank the leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps for working with the state and our communities to move these properties toward responsible local stewardship,” he said in a statement.
Green encouraged all branches of the military to identify other land that is no longer essential to their mission and can be given to the state.
Military officials have previously suggested that they are open to doing so for roughly 3,400 acres the Army owns in Makua Valley on Oahu. The Army also has expressed interest in not renewing a lease to use 782 acres of state-owned land in Makua.
More than 29,000 acres of state land is leased by the Army, including the Makua acreage, 1,150 acres in Kahuku, 4,390 acres in the Kawailoa-Poamoho area and 22,750 acres on Hawaii island at Pohakuloa. Leases for all these lands were provided for $1 in 1964 for a term expiring in 2029.
The Army has been working to renew leases with the state for 19,700 acres at Pohakuloa and 450 acres at Kahuku without renewing leases for the other sites. But one early step to renew the leases faltered last year when the the state Board of Land and Natural Resources rejected an Army environmental impact report for intended uses, citing deficiencies in the study.
The Army considers the state land it leases on Hawaii island critical for training because it is between two portions of federal land making up the service’s largest live-fire training area in the Pacific Basin.
A revised report could be submitted for potential approval, though the Army has also considered other ways to maintain its use of the land, including exchanges with the state and condemnation.