Vehement community opposition has stalled the state and military’s lease negotiations as the U.S. Army continues its bid to retain close to 30,000 acres of land in Hawaii. 

A recent Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting included a measure that would have let the state appraise the lands to recalibrate the Army’s rent across Oahu and Big Island. Those leases were signed in 1964 for $1 and expire in 2029.

“I think we all agree. The days of $1 are gone,” BLNR Chair Dawn Chang said Friday. 

The board opted to shelve the matter for now after more than two hours of testimony opposing the Army’s continued tenancy.

The appraisal, Chang said, was intended to set a baseline for negotiations that also include a potential land exchange. Despite her assurances, those in opposition said contracting an appraiser would ensure the Army’s lease renewal was a foregone conclusion.

Dozens of opponents also took issue with just how the land in Makua Valley and Kahuku, Kawailoa-Poamoho and Pohakuloa Training Areas would be appraised and to what end. Those leases comprise about 28,892 acres and have been used for military training, including live munition exercises.

Opponents included former BLNR Chair William Aila, who said the notion of appraisal was too vague and that he would contest it if passed. Discussion between Aila, the board and its attorney general eventually led the board to defer the measure.

As of Wednesday, the appraisal measure had yet to be rescheduled, according to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Reappraising the land raises questions over not just how much the state could charge the Army but how the land would be valued. That is partly because some tracts of those state lands, such as in PTA on Big Island, are critical to the military’s operations. 

The leased lands at Pohakuloa are the “connective tissue” between the two military-owned tracts of the training area, Gen. Charles Flynn, U.S. Army Pacific commander, told the board. And PTA is “one of the most important training areas for our country and our island,” he added.

But how to determine a figure that accounts for the lands’ worth to the military, its Indigenous and environmental importance and the real estate value remains a question Jasmine Slovak of Hoʻi Hoʻi Ea says she is unsure if an appraiser can answer. 

The conversation has also shown that there’s a shift in dynamics, Slovak said in an interview, one where the community has greater traction.

“The state and the military are trying to frame the conversation,” Slovak said. “And I think the community is trying to create a third tension that pulls it back from just between them and back into a community space.”

Responding to communities’ long-held grievances over the Army’s treatment of state lands is not for BLNR to answer, Chang said in the meeting.

“Too often we end up shouldering the responsibility of the applicant,” Chang said. “I don’t think we want to be a buffer anymore.”

Environmental Impact

The Army has been working on environmental impact statements since at least 2022 in its bid to renew its leases. 

Those impact statements include different scenarios for the Army to keep its leases or trade its leased land for other Army-owned tracts around the state. The first EIS will be released later this month, for Big Island, and Oahu’s will be published in June. Public consultation will follow their release.

“Trading ceded lands for other ceded lands is so hewa, so insulting,” Aila told the board. “I hope, board members, that you’d be insulted by that, too.”

The impact statements do not contain any scenarios for the Army’s complete surrender of the leases, which also spoke volumes, Aila told the board. 

“The EIS is so pre-decisional that it doesn’t even talk about a lack of retention,” Aila added. 

The statements will include scenarios for about 782 acres of Makua Valley in Leeward Oahu. Activists have called for the Army to relinquish its land in Makua for decades.

Last year the Department of Defense announced it would no longer need Makua for live-fire training, though it had not fired live rounds since 2004.

Makua advocate Vince Dodge said last year’s announcement was a watershed moment for the valley, representing “a shift away from business as usual” and toward a more collaborative relationship.

The area has since been used for unmanned aircraft training and hosts helipads.    

But retaining the land for aircraft is a “weak excuse” because that training could be done elsewhere, Aila said.    

If the state does not renew the leases, Aila said it could have a cascading effect, akin to the military’s return of Kahoolawe to the state in 2003, following years of advocacy.  

“When Kahoolawe and Makua were being fought over at the same time, the kupuna got together and said Kahoolawe now and Makua next,” Aila said. “I’m here to remind everybody that Makua is next.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Hawaii island is supported in part by a grant from the Dorrance Family Foundation.