The City and County of Honolulu took ownership of approximately 400 acres of former Navy-owned land at Kalaeloa that will go toward public recreation use, Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced at a ceremony outside Honolulu Hale on Wednesday afternoon.
The land acquisition, consisting of six parcels, has been in the making since the city, along with the Navy and the National Park Service, first applied for the land in 1999. The city took ownership of the lands from the secretary of the interior, acting by and through the director of NPS.
“This is what happens when like-minded people come together on a great idea, ” Blangiardi said at the ceremony. “Four-hundred acres is not a small amount of land. There’s a lot that went into this, but we are really very grateful.”
The land, which was home to the former Naval Air Station Barbers Point, was part of the U.S. military’s Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC ), through which unused and underused military-owned property is released for use by local communities. The transfer of the land did not cost anything to the city.
“It is a project of commitment and resilience, ” Assistant Secretary of the Navy Meredith Berger said. “It is a place of significance for the Navy, and now it is a place that will continue that significance for the future of the community. There is so much potential here in all that we can do, and we are glad to be a part of it and continue to be a part of…
