Honolulu City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi wants the city to look into placing a motor sports racetrack on a portion of a historic field that the Navy is planning to transfer to the city.
There is currently no legally sanctioned track on Oahu, and racing enthusiasts are in overdrive to have one created.
The Council is expected to vote on a resolution Wednesday urging the administration to expedite the transfer of 400 acres of land at the shuttered Naval Air Station Barbers Point to the city. Racing fans hope 220 of those acres would be devoted to a track.
“In its simplest terms, Oahu needs a race track,” Ed Kemper, an officer with the Hawaii region of the Sports Car Club of America, wrote in support of Resolution 18-265.
Before the old Hawaii Raceway Park on Oahu closed in 2006, “it was used seven days a week and would have hundreds of competitors racing drag racers, sports cars, motorcycles on pavement and dirt, stock car racing on a small dirt track and go-karts,” Kemper said.
Li Cobian, a dirt bike racer, former parks board member and volunteer for state Rep. Sam Kong, said a quarter-mile track could be located on a portion of the field that is away from historic landmarks, such as areas that were attacked by Japan on Dec. 7, 1941.
The land under consideration could include the end of a runway that was extended in 1942, and a weedy asphalt ramp from 1944 that was once used for B-24 and B-25 bombers.
About 180 acres of the field that were part of the Dec. 7 attacks are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Marine Corps air station eventually became part of the adjacent Barbers Point Naval Air Station, which was completed in 1942.
In his testimony in favor of the track, Cobian wrote that the city “has subsidized and funded billions for non-revenue generating public use” of skateboard parks, swimming pools, golf courses and soccer, baseball, tennis and other fields.
“It is demonstrably clear that the City of Honolulu has neglected the needs and considerations to accommodate the motorsports community of Oahu.”
He said neighbor island raceways receive $2 million to $3 million a year in state funding for capital improvement projects, and suggested an Oahu racetrack could receive similar benefits.
But city administrators and Ewa Field historian John Bond have concerns.
Gary Kurokawa, the city’s chief of staff, wrote to Kobayashi on Oct. 11 in response to her request for information.
While a racetrack is a “laudable endeavor,” it was noteworthy that “significant portions” of the air station parcel have been determined to be historic, he said.
“This designation will likely add additional stipulations of what can and cannot occur within the designated historic areas,” he said.
The transfer of land from the Navy to the city Department of Parks and Recreation is not yet completed, “but is in its final stages,” Kurokawa said. A City Council committee reported the transfer is expected by the spring.
The parks department recently began a feasibility study to determine the best use of the seven Barbers Point parcels.
“As I am sure you are well aware, large parcels of open space are at a premium the City and County of Honolulu, and (the parks department) has received numerous requests to construct more open fields and parks for the public to use, particularly in the Kalaeloa/Leeward side of Oahu,” Kurokawa said.
Ewa Field resident Bond, who has spent a decade striving to resurrect Dec. 7 Marine Corps history at Ewa Field, said he is against the racetrack.
He said post-1941 portions of Ewa Field, including the 1942 runway that is part of the racetrack plan, are National Register-eligible in association with the base’s larger World War II history, including a key role in the Battle of Midway.
“Any dragstrip creates huge environmental issues — explosive fuel, loud noise, fire hazards,” he also said. “There are many new homes and developments nearby today that weren’t there
10 years ago. The noise travels for miles and homeowners and families don’t want the fire and explosive gasoline hazards nearby their children and pets.”
Beyond that the Ewa Field area has underground caves, Hawaiian burial sites and native plants and birds, he said.
“There would be a huge amount of environmental rules, regulations, insurance, community opposition, etc. to overcome,” he said.
Kobayashi was under the impression that the suggested location of the track did not infringe on historic parts of Ewa Field.
“The reason we got into this was the accidents that have been happening on (Tantalus-Round Top Drive) and on the freeway because of people racing and drifting, etc.,” she said. “If we had a racetrack, people could go there instead of using our streets.”
