Consider revival of Barbers Point

The relocation of 2,500 Marines and their families from Japan to Hawaii is welcome for their addition to the economy, but the question is where to put them. The Marine Corps Air Station at Kaneohe has too little extra sleeping space to fully accommodate them. While much of the onetime Naval Air Station at Barbers Point is vacant — certainly an attractive and intriguing option — the trick is finding a way to keep the newly arrived Marines from adding to the nearby H-1 highway traffic jam on their way to Kaneohe.

The Barbers Point base was decommissioned and closed by the Navy in 1999 and most of the land was transferred to the state. The Navy keeps beach cabins and a golf course, and some of the airfield is inhabited by the Coast Guard and the National Guard. Enough land is empty to provide enough housing for the Marine newcomers. Some of the base has become privately owned, including housing rentals.

Anthony Ching, executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which has oversight authority over the area now called Kalaeloa, says a new Marine Corps family housing project there "could really help revitalize the old base." The authority’s master plan for the 3,709-acre base calls for 6,350 homes and a 7,000-job business district. State officials have estimated that the plan would cost $3.35 billion to put together, including improvement of old roads, water utilities, electrical systems and other infrastructure.

An important question is what the Marines would do onsite once they call the Kalaeloa base home. Stephen Sorett, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who specializes in base realignment and closure, says that locating some Marine aircraft squadrons to the site could be tricky. Such large-scale maneuvering would certainly need congressional support, he opined. Indeed, it would be a political feat to re-open or re-commission a military base that was shuttered more than a dozen years ago amid a series of sensitive realignments and closures across the nation.

Still, smaller-scale military use would be within the realm of possibilities. Housing would need to be a major component, of course, but it seems a mixed use with work centers on site also would be needed to prevent development from becoming a mere bedroom community.

"It’s clearly much easier if (the property) is owned by the public sector as opposed to a private-sector interest," Sorett told the Star-Advertiser’s William Cole. But, "certainly there’s a lot of precedent for the government building assets on private property and then entering into long-term deals."

U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa has voiced support for the idea of Marine housing at Kalaeloa. Her spokesman said going forward would depend on how to return parts of the base to military use, determine construction work to be required "and what other logistical questions would have to be answered, including transportation."

That key question of transportation could be the deal breaker. If stationed at old Barbers Point, the Kalaeloa Marines may have to travel to Kaneohe to join their 11,700 fellow leathernecks in performing their functions. That could mean adding their vehicles to the crawling traffic during rush hour on H-1 between Waikele and the entrance to the H-3 freeway to the Kaneohe Marine base — and that would rightly bring howls of protest.