The U.S. Air Force says it now plans to hold onto a 138-acre training site at Bellows Air Force Station that it had previously intended to give up, reversing a position it held since at least 2021. The parcel sits in the southeastern part of Bellows, wedged between a Waimanalo residential neighborhood and Waimanalo Bay, land that had been expected to eventually make its way back to the state.
A Reversal Years in the Making
The Air Force had planned to relinquish the site as far back as 2021, according to the Hawaii Military Land Use Master Plan, as reported by Hawaii News Now. That expectation shifted when the Air Force cited “changes in operational requirements” as the reason for keeping the land, according to the same report. No further detail on what those operational changes entail has been made public.
The site has a long and complicated military history. Weston Solutions, a firm involved in range clearance work, describes the broader Marine Corps Training Area Bellows as undeveloped land still used for general training and maneuvering, and notes that part of the property was used as a practice bombing range beginning in the 1930s. An investigation at the site turned up no munitions and explosives of concern, though it did find munitions debris and other non-munitions-related debris, per the same findings. The area has also been flagged as archaeologically sensitive, with the potential for traditional Hawaiian cultural deposits.
State Lawmaker Pushed for Cleanup and Possible Return
State Rep. Lisa Marten had worked with Hawaii’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., to secure funding for a cleanup of the former Urban Warfare Training site, with hopes the land could eventually return to the state, the station's report notes. Marten said cleanup of the makai, or ocean-facing, portion of the property would move forward regardless of the Air Force’s decision to retain the broader parcel, with a final cleanup design expected to be published in December, according to the same account.
Honolulu City Council members are separately pushing for the return of land at Bellows Air Force Station, according to KITV, which first reported on the renewed push this week. The push underscores how, even as the Air Force holds firm on the 138-acre training parcel, local officials continue pressing for a broader resolution on military-held land in Waimanalo.
Public Access Remains Uncertain
A Honolulu city planning document indicates that a portion of Bellows has historically been designated for public use, including beach access, picnicking and camping on weekends, according to city records. The document does not specify whether that designation applies to the 138-acre training parcel itself or how current that access arrangement remains.
Bellows is not the only military-held parcel in Hawaii drawing attention over land transfers. Gov. Josh Green’s office has announced the Navy initiating the return of nearly 44 acres to the state across Oahu and Molokai, including 31 acres at Kalaeloa and 12 acres at Hoʻolehua, according to a news release from the governor’s office. Separately, a state resource has said the Air Force returned more than 363 acres of leased land on Molokai to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, while an earlier Maui News report described a similar transfer of more than 363 Molokai acres once used for radio communications. The acreage figures in these separate accounts have not been reconciled against one another.
For now, the fate of the Waimanalo parcel remains tied to the twin tracks of cleanup funding and political pressure. Marten’s work on securing cleanup funding continues even as the Air Force’s retention decision complicates any near-term path toward returning the broader training site to the state.
