Gov. Josh Green wants to secure significant investments from the federal government for housing and environmental protection while also moving swiftly on a deal that would allow the Army to continue using thousands of acres of state land for training.

Anticipating that the Trump administration could invoke eminent domain to seize those lands on Oʻahu and the Big Island where the Army has training grounds and an artillery range, Green sent a nine-page letter to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Oct. 29 outlining the state’s priorities. 

Those 65-year leases will expire in 2029, and federal officials have pushed Green to find a way forward on new agreements by the end of the year after the process for renewing the leases was thrown into limbo with the state’s rejection of environmental reports over the summer.

It’s the first time these leases have required negotiations since the Army paid just $1 for them in the mid-1960s. Such deal-making normally can last months and include land board meetings that would give the public an opportunity to weigh in on the process.

But the governor seemed to acknowledge in the letter that defense officials will not wait that long and would instead choose to take lands owned by the state through the condemnation process.

If the Army chose to condemn the land and take it by force, Green wrote that simply paying the market value of those lands “is insufficient to address historic wrongs,” and called for “durable benefits to the people of Hawaiʻi.”

More: Is The Military In For A Wake-Up Call As Hawaiʻi Leases Near End?

He wrote that a negotiated settlement is the most efficient path forward and would avoid legal challenges that could come from condemnation, which could elongate the process and throw the Army’s future use of those lands into even more uncertainty.

Green wants to secure $10 billion worth of investments from the federal government in exchange for the Army lands, the letter said, without elaborating. In response to a request for a breakdown, the governor’s office framed the $10 billion figure as a starting point for discussions.

Green proposed convening a negotiation team to set parameters on a settlement later this week. Details on community benefits would be worked out by a technical group led by a yet-to-be-appointed state agency. The governor’s office said it is still waiting for a response from the Army on Green’s letter.

Governor’s Wish List

The letter outlined broad goals for a proposed negotiation framework with the feds.

Top of the list was cleanup and remediation of the training grounds, including Mākua Valley on Oʻahu, where live-fire training that ended 20 years ago left behind fragments of ammunition and ordnance.

Green also wants help converting 88,000 cesspools that harm the environment by leaching toxins into the ground but have proven expensive to eradicate. Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency “expressed readiness” to partner with the state on those conversions, the letter said.

The governor also wants to take a whack at Hawaiʻi’s housing shortage by securing federal help for the development of 6,500 new homes as well as the use of a lot near Schofield Barracks on Oʻahu for workforce housing.

Funding for liquefied natural gas and geothermal projects in the state may also be on the table. Green’s administration recently entered a tentative deal with a Japanese company to bring liquefied natural gas to the islands. Money from the federal government would augment $2 billion pledged by Tokyo-based JERA Co., Inc., and lessen any potential impact on utility customers as generators that now burn oil would have to be retrofitted for natural gas.

The state has been trying to move forward in finding more viable geothermal resources hidden deep under the volcanic islands.

The governor also asked for federal investments in major transportation projects, including the multimillion-dollar Daniel K. Inouye Highway extension on Hawaiʻi island, as well as money for the Honolulu rail line, road improvements in Kolekole Pass in Waiʻanae and bridge rehabilitation across the state.

He also called for the transfer of the 1,200-bed Federal Detention Center in Honolulu to the state for use as a corrections facility. State lawmakers have tried in the past to acquire the detention center arguing that it never runs at capacity, unlike state facilities that are often overcrowded.

Green also wants to see the protection of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Many worry that protections will erode after President Donald Trump allowed commercial fishing in waters near the monument.

The governor also advocated for improved Medicare reimbursements and the restoration of federal programs that have been cut in Hawaiʻi that support higher education, climate resilience and energy initiatives.

Green asked that officials follow those points as closely as possible. He prioritized securing a one-time $500 million settlement for restoration and cleanup of those training areas, creating a partnership with the University of Hawaiʻi to manage and monitor those lands and guaranteeing cultural access to those sites.

Where The Military Stands

Green has been making Hawaiʻi’s case to Trump Cabinet officials who hold the keys to many of the concessions being sought in exchange for the Army’s use of state lands.

The letter summarizes meetings he has had with those officials, including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nomination Green opposed earlier this year.

He also had talks with officials in the federal transportation department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Interior Department, as well as senior military officials.

Earlier this year, the Army signaled its intent to significantly reduce its footprint on Oʻahu while maintaining tracts needed for land-based exercises.

According to Green’s letter, the Army supports the return of Mākua Valley to the state as well as improvements on the Daniel K. Inouye Highway and the Kolekole Pass emergency route through the Waiʻanae mountain range. It also supported increased housing investments, including new barracks and privatized housing.

The Army showed “openness” to giving the 1-acre Fort DeRussy site in Waikīkī back to the state.

It was also open to returning the 8,000-acre Keʻāmuku Maneuver Area in Pōhakuloa after already announcing in August that it planned to downsize the Pōhakuloa Training Area.

The Army also showed interest in exploring a cleanup fund that would be administered by the state and expanding environmental conservation programs.

The Army’s feedback, according to Green’s letter, did not address some of the more sweeping proposals from the state including renewable energy initiatives, although it acknowledged that geothermal development may not be feasible on lands it owns.

Officials with the EPA and the human services department were receptive to converting cesspools and improving Medicare costs in Hawaiʻi. Transportation officials also supported highway and bridge improvements. However, additional funding for the vastly overbudget Honolulu rail project and transfer of the federal detention center weren’t addressed.

Navy officials have suggested support for building off-base housing along the Skyline rail route. Assistant defense secretaries talked about aligning the Army’s land use in Hawaiʻi to the department’s “broader Indo-Pacific posture.” The Army has argued that retention of its training areas is necessary to prepare for possible conflicts with China and Russia.

The breadth of the settlement parameters outlined in the letter go far beyond the issues former governors tackled when the military returned land to the state in the past. Kahoʻolawe, which was used for decades as a bombing range, was officially returned to the state in 2003 and the naval air station at Barbers Point returned to state control in 1999.

The bombing of Kahoʻolawe stopped in 1990 under orders from President George H.W. Bush, and negotiations for the return of the island began during former Gov. John Waiheʻe’s administration.

Waiheʻe declined to comment on the specifics of Green’s proposal, but said that it appeared to be much more complex with “a lot more twists and turns” than other military negotiations he’s seen. During his administration, Waiheʻe said that the state was focused primarily on the cleanup and return of Kahoʻolawe.

“The position of the state was always ‘Stop the bombing and return the land,'” Waiheʻe said in a phone interview, because officials believed at the time that the environment felt the brunt of harmful impacts from military training.

He said that one outstanding question for him is whether people will be satisfied with efforts to alleviate the “environmental and cultural destruction” that took place because of the training.

If the Army is allowed to retain the lands, “I don’t know how much we are actually exchanging,” he said.

Read the full letter below: