Fort DeRussy Land Sale Has Hurdles to Clear

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Washington » Fort DeRussy is probably still a long way from being put on the public auction block, despite a recommendation by the White House Property Review Board that part of the land be declared excess to federal needs.

Hawaii legislators said today the issue still faces a lengthy review by both the Reagan adminstration and Congress before Fort DeRussy can officially be declared surplus land and offered for sale to the public.

"This is just the first step in the process," said a spokesman for Rep. Cecil Heftel, D-Hawaii. "There are several more steps to go before decisions can be made to dispose of any property."

The Property Review Board has listed hundreds of federal properties that it believes are no longer needed by the government, and could be sold to the public to help retire the trillion-dollar federal debt. The list, which was informally circulated in Congress Friday, will be made public later this week.

Four parcels in Hawaii, including 17 acres of beachfront land at Fort DeRussy, are included on the list.

Other Hawaii properties are a 21⁄2-acre parcel at Keehi Lagoon, which includes 81,000 square feet in storage buildings, a 689-acre parcel at Lualualei Naval Magazine, which has no buildings, and a 1.5-acre parcel at the Pearl Harbor Public Works Center, which also has no buildings.

The Property Review Board’s list will now go to the General Services Administration, the official landlord for most federal properties, which will have the right to add or delete parcels from the list, Heftel’s spokesman said.

If the Fort DeRussy property remains on the list after the GSA review, the administration will still need approval from Congress before it can offer the property for sale to the public. This is because Congress voted in 1968, at the request of Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye, specifically to prohibit the administration from selling any part of Fort DeRussy without the consent of Congress.

Efforts to declare Fort DeRussy surplus have run into strong opposition from Mayor Eileen Anderson and the entire Hawaii congressional delegation, who have declared an all-out campaign to protect one of the last bits of open space on Waikiki Beach.