Kalaeloa Regional Park
Table of Contents
On June 12, 2024 the City and County of Honolulu officially took ownership of approximately 400 acres of former Naval Air Station Barbers Point land in Kalaeloa. This historic land transfer was part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act, under which the U.S. military was able to release unused or underused property, in this case, for the benefit of local communities. The City first applied for the lands in 1999, and while it had constructive possession of the land since Summer 2016 (which allowed for basic maintenance), the signing of the 25-page deed fronting Honolulu Hale served as the starting point when the City could truly begin long-term planning to develop parts of this underutilized space through larger capital improvement projects.
Since then, the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has been working to allocate resources and funding to plan, develop, and activate what is currently referred to as Kalaeloa Regional Park. This includes:
- Appropriating $1.8 million to begin the development of a Master Plan for Kalaeloa Regional Park. This process will include robust public input, along with environmental and cultural assessments.
- The development of an interim, dirt racetrack, through a public private partnership, while that larger Master Plan is crafted. A more permanent racetrack location and layout can be determined through the Master Plan.
- Allocating $500,000 in the Fiscal Year 2026 Capital Improvement budget to design sustainable and resilient bathrooms, and wastewater facility, for the campground at Kalaeoloa Beach Park.
- Helping to secure the park land, and reduce illegal activity in the area, through a $150,000 guard services contract.
We encourage you to continue visiting this website for the latest updates on all of these efforts, and to stay involved in the process. These 400 acres represent an amazing opportunity to create new and expanded recreational experiences for our growing communities, and we want you to be part of that change!
Master Plan Process
The Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation is working with fellow City Agencies to begin the Master Plan process for the City-owned properties referred to as Kalaeloa Regional Park. The Hawai‘i Community Development Authority is similarly conducting a Master Plan for their parcels, and has posted a Draft Master Plan updated July 31, 2025.
On Tuesday, August 19, 2025 DPR staff were joined by the O‘ahu Motorsports Association to provide an update on the interim racetrack and City’s Master Plan effort. Click the above YouTube window to view that presentation and public testimony. The presentation materials can be found here:
Interim, Dirt Racetrack
At Mayor Blangiardi’s final 2025 townhall on June 6, 2025 at Kalani High School, DPR Director Laura H. Thielen was joined by Managing Director Mike Formby to announce the plan for an interim, dirt racetrack on a roughly 23-acres parcel of undeveloped park land in Kalaeloa Regional Park along Coral Sea Road. The adjacent video, courtesy ‘Ōlelo Community Media, is a live recording of this announcement.
The exact site of this interim racetrack is located near the active air-strip on the makai-side of a parcel bordered by Independence Avenue and Coral Sea Road, referred to as Lot 13060 (see the adjacent map for the location). The racetrack is intended to be an interim facility while the City works to develop a Master Plan for all of Kalaeloa Regional Park. That Master Plan will include robust public input, along with environmental and cultural assessments. The permanent racetrack location and layout will be determined through that Master Plan, and may be in another area near this interim location.
The interim racetrack is being developed through a private-public partnership with the O‘ahu Motorsports Association and long-time racetrack / motorsports advocate Li Cobian. The layout of the track, operations, and the timeline for making it a reality will ultimately be determined by the City. Along with providing the motorsports community with a much anticipated recreational resource, after the former Hawaii Raceway Park shut down nearly 20 years ago in March 2006, the hope is that having a proper place for motorsports will help reduce illegal street racing and off-roading. Particularly as Kalaeloa Beach Park experiences beach off-roading on a regular basis, despite efforts to restrict vehicular access onto the beach. It will also activate an area which experiences frequent trespassers and unauthorized use.
Development of a racetrack reflects the need for a motorsports facility on the island of O‘ahu, expressed in the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan and through Honolulu City Council Resolution 18-073. Advocacy for a racetrack has been expressed in several public forums, including during Mayor Blangiardi’s Townhall meetings from 2023 through 2025, and during presentations to Neighborhood Boards #34 and #23 in 2019.
Proposed Location
The site of the interim racetrack is slated to be placed on the makai-end of a nearly 23-acre lot referred to as Parcel 13060.
Current Uses
Prior to the June 2024 land transfer mentioned above, the jurisdiction over this campground and public beach was similar to the situation over at Bellows Field Beach Park in Waimānalo. That’s where land is owned by the military, but the campgrounds and beach are maintained and operated by DPR for general public use. There is also a parallel with Bellows in regards to the military operating private campgrounds down the shoreline. Once DPR gained constructive possession of these lands in Summer 2016 the City was able to conduct small improvements to the beach park (such as tree trimming, landscaping, bench installation, roadway maintenance, placing of portable toilets and vehicular barriers to protect the beach). Now that DPR and the City have full title over the beach and campgrounds, larger renovations and Capital Improvement Projects can be tasked!
This includes improvements to the beach park’s comfort station (bathroom building), which has been intermittently closed for over a decade due to a variety of operational and maintenance issues. The comfort station uses a cesspool and needs upgrades to the wastewater system to meet current standards. In the City’s Fiscal Year 2026 Capital Improvement Budget, $500,000o has been allocated to design a sustainable and resilient wastewater and bathroom facility.
Currently, our maintenance, community forestry, and volunteer coordiantion staff are working with 808 Cleanups to protect and activate the beach park. This includes installing barriers to restrict illegal vehicular access onto the beach (pictured above) and future tree planting efforts.
You can be part of that effort to help improve Kalaeloa Beach Park by volunteering with 808 Cleanups, who has an active Adopt-a-Park agreement with DPR! Join them every Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the makai-side of Coral Sea Road near their orange truck. All ages are welcome to restore this scenic shoreline by helping remove invasive plants and litter! Please bring sturdy shoes or boots, sun protection and a reusable water container. Jeans or other work pants are recommended for invasive species removal. 808 Cleanups will provide all cleanup tools and supplies. Please RSVP through the 808 Cleanups App, emailing 808cleanups@gmail.com, DM on Instagram, or replying on their Facebook group.
Volunteer Beach Restorations!
Help remove invasive species to make way for native plants, remove litter, and restore the coastline on Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information click the image!
History of the Land
Portions of the information on the background and history of Kalaeloa, and the area now known as Kalaeloa Regional Park, was taken directly from the Draft Master Plan published by the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority on July 31, 2025.
The area known for two centuries as Barbers Point takes its name from the wreck of the Arthur, a ship captained by Henry Barber in a hurricane in 1796. Barber and several of his crew struggled ashore near the site then known as Kalaeloa. Known as the legendary birthplace and burial ground of Hawaiian kings, this event indelibly linked his name to this part of the island. Some seventy years later, James Campbell purchased the land as part of his larger purchase of 41,000 acres of flat land in the ‘Ewa district to be used in the production of sugar cane. Campbell, in turn, leased the land to O‘ahu Sugar Company, which began the association of this area with sugar cane.
The Navy’s association with the area began in 1925 with the leasing of 150 acres from the Campbell estate. Around 1935, the Navy began the construction of ‘Ewa Field adjacent to plantation housing for the nearby Ewa sugar mill. On December 7, 1941, as part of the attack on Pearl Harbor, ‘Ewa Field was hit resulting in significant damage and loss of life. Thus, this battlefield site is an important landmark and in 2016 the ‘Ewa Plain Battlefield was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1940 the Navy purchased approximately 3,500 acres of land at Barbers Point allowing it to expand ‘Ewa Field as the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) and to construct the Naval Air Station Barbers Point (NASBP). The attack on Pearl Harbor preceded any construction on this site, but by 1943, NASBP became operational, quickly becoming a pivotal facility in servicing carrier-borne aircraft which was a critical component in the Navy’s effort to project air power in the Pacific theater as the “Crossroads of the Pacific.”
While in operation, NASBP also hosted a pioneering Lieutenant who built a record-breaking VU-1 racecar using plane parts and an aircraft fuel tank gathered from the military bases. Lieutenant Harvey William Haller then used the bases’ runways to train with the speedy vehicle ahead of setting a then world record for land speed of 209.48 miles per hour in September 1953 while racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats time trials in Utah. This information was provided by a Hawai‘i State Senate Certificate presented in 2023 by Senators Mike Gabbard and Maile Shimabukuro to mark the 70th anniversary of the record-breaking race.
Despite its strategic importance throughout WWII and in the four decades that followed, in 1993, the U.S. Congress authorized the Department of Defense’s recommendation to close the NASBP. The base realignment and closure (BRAC) process followed proscribed steps requiring the Navy to first identify lands for retention, then offer excess lands to other federal agencies, then dispose of the remaining surplus to the State, City, and private parties.
When NASBP formally closed on July 2, 1999, the Navy retained roughly 1,055 acres, designated approximately 457 acres as excess land for transfer to various federal agencies, and designated roughly 2,180 acres of the remaining land as surplus.
