Posted on: Tuesday, June 17, 2003

EDITORIAL
Grander vision needed for Kalaeloa projects

Four years ago, our editorial pages raved about the possibilities for Kalaeloa as the Navy returned the Barbers Point Naval Air Station to the state. Since then, there have been oh-so-many plans for the 3,700-acre area on the 'Ewa Plain, but few if any have come to pass, as Advertiser military writer William Cole detailed yesterday.

Plans have included a 168-acre shoreline park, a sports center, a new raceway park, a homeless shelter and related services, homes for Native Hawaiians and commercial and light industry. Sure, isolated projects have crept in, such as Quality Homes of the Pacific, which builds affordable homes. But the place is more or less a ghost town.

Landowners include the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Guard, the Fish and Wildlife Service, Veterans Affairs and various state and city agencies. And clearly, they're not investing in the infrastructure needed to kick-start redevelopment. Everyone seems to be doing his own thing, and there's no cohesive plan.

That's why the Hawai'i Community Development Corporation, which oversees redevelopment of the site, must strive to achieve a grander comprehensive vision for Kalaeloa before it further crumbles into a hodgepodge of disparate projects.