Honolulu City Council presses Air Force to return Oahu acreage to Hawaii

The council will consider a resolution urging the federal government to return portions of Bellows Air Force Station on Oahu that are no longer used for military training.

Honolulu will consider a resolution urging the government to return portions of Bellows Air Force Station that are no longer used for military training. This undated photo posted on Bellows Air Force Station’s website shows beachside cabins on the installation that can be rented by service members, veterans and Defense Department employees. (U.S. Air Force) The Honolulu City Council will consider a resolution Thursday urging the federal government to return portions of Bellows Air Force Station on Oahu to the state of Hawaii that are no longer used for military training. The resolution calls for the United States to return the acreage in consultation with the Native Hawaiian community, residents of Waimanalo on the east side of Oahu and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

The resolution maintains that the beachside air station, whose last runways closed in 1958, is used primarily for “morale, welfare and recreation” purposes. That should trigger a federal review to determine if the land is surplus, the resolution states, because the century-old presidential executive order that set the property aside was “specifically for military training and readiness.” The city’s five-member zoning committee voted unanimously last month to send the resolution to the full council, where it will likely pass because committee members make up the majority of the nine-member city council. The Honolulu City