By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
A view of the Arizona Memorial from Ford Island,
a chunk of Pearl Harbor land that the Navy hopes to renovate
with a $500 million project of 600 new housing units
and a Navy Museum.
Future Ford Island
rich in culture, history
By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinThe look of Ford Island will be operational and residential, historical and cultural, says Rear Adm. William Sutton, Pearl Harbor Naval Base commander. When completed in the year 2009, the $500 million project will have doubled the 3,000 residential and daytime population of the island in the middle of Pearl Harbor.
The Navy is looking for local developers to work on the new Ford Island master plan, which calls for 600 housing units and a $50 million Navy museum.
Planners said shrinking federal resources, the opening of the $78 million Ford Island bridge in May 1998 and the decision to berth the battleship Missouri here helped shape the new master plan.
Rear Adm. William Sutton
Ford Island would be divided into three sectors. Existing and new operational and administrative facilities will continue to be located on the south side of the island. Quarters for 500 to 1,000 single enlisted sailors and officers would be relocated there.
The center of the island, now occupied by Luke Field, would be developed into a large open air park -- a green buffer zone between the operational side of the island and the family housing units. The airfield, now used mainly by civilian pilots to practice touch-and-go landings, will be closed in May 1998.
The runway was the one Amelia Earhart crashed-landed on in 1936, a year before she disappeared.
The north side of the island would be the site of new family housing units, conservatively estimated to cost $250 million.
Byrnes Yamashita, master planner with the Pacific Division Naval Facilities Engineering Command, said the key to the development of the 600 housing units will be a partnership the Navy hopes to undertake with local developers.
The Navy would lease the 100 acres to a developer, who would build the units and receive the rent. Rents for the units, open to only Navy families, would be slightly above the housing allowance the military provides, Yamashita said.
Capt. John Shrewsbury, assistant chief of staff for facilities and environment at Pearl Harbor, said the concept is being tested in three other military housing projects, including Fort Carson, Colo., and Ingleside Naval Station, Texas.
Yamashita said the Navy may have to pay for some of the improvements for the new housing development, mainly sewer and electric lines, but he believes the two water lines leading to the island should be adequate. "You have to remember that during the war there were 40,000 people on the island," Yamashita said.
The Navy also plans to retain the 50 plantation-style pre-World War II wooden houses that dot the island.
Existing training and administrative facilities -- such as the Defense Finance and Accounting Center, the Navy SEAL operations, and a firefighting training center -- will make up the southern half of the island.
A large open space would be retained on the northeastern shore for special events such as the Navy's annual hydrofest.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Navy planner Byrnes Yamashita discusses the future of
Ford Island. The isle's war-era housing is in the background.
Navy museum complex
By Gregg K. Kakesako
to tell story of Pacific
Star-BulletinRear Adm. William Sutton says the Navy has no museum "dedicated to what the Navy did in the Pacific." The Pearl Harbor Naval Base commander says the Navy wants Navy Square on Ford Island to build on the Pacific wartime experiences generated by the Arizona Memorial and the battleship Missouri, which will be towed to the islands next May from Seattle.
"The Navy Square would link the beginning of the war with the Arizona Memorial to the end of the war with the Missouri, where the treaty with Japan was signed," said Brynes Yamashita, a Navy planner.
The museum complex would be built on the southern shore of the island and would be accessible by shuttle tour boats. Restaurants could be built along this oceanside promenade.
The Navy hopes it could be become a premier tourist attraction if packaged with the Arizona Memorial, the Bowfin submarine and the Missouri.
Yamashita said the complex could be similar to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, where admission would be free, but the operators could make their money through an IMAX theater and other shops.
Other historical features on Ford Island will be incorporated into the new master plan.
Stan Yuen, Pearl Harbor Naval Base facilities engineer, said these include the air traffic control tower, the focal point of the tiny island; Hangar 79; seaplane ramps, homes and other pre-World War II facilities.
"The Navy plans to work closely with the state historical office and other community groups to maintain the historical and cultural aspects of the island," Yuen said.
Yuen also said there is a little-known monument to the USS Utah on Ford Island.
The Utah, a fleet auxiliary ship, was one of the first hit by Japanese torpedoes on Dec. 7, 1941. Fifty-nine sailors are still entombed in the naval vessel.
Ford Island
Ancient Hawaiian name: Mokuumeume
The bridge linking Ford Island with Aiea: The Bridge
