WASHINGTON — The Navy is considering the possibility of turning over ownership of 500 acres at Kalaeloa to the state government for a mix of housing, high-technology businesses and other uses, Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday.

"I want the state to get that land without spending any state (government) money," said Lingle, who is here to attend the National Governors Association winter meeting starting today. "Our investment would be in the (water, sewer and power systems) to bring it up to a level that could support the kind of development that we are talking about."

The acreage consists of several pieces of land that are part of the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station along Roosevelt Avenue.

While the Navy supports the state's idea for the land's use, "their overall issue is the money that would have been coming in if they could sell it to the private sector," Lingle said.

Lingle, who met with Navy Secretary Donald Winter, said she argued that the land's existing utility and water systems are "extremely expensive" to maintain.

"I told them that if you deduct the cost of (improving) those systems, that land is not valued at what they think its value is," she said.

Lingle said the Navy wants the state and its Democratic congressional delegation, especially Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, and Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, to present a united front in backing the plan.

"I'm confident that if the congressional delegation gets behind this, we will get this land at no cost," Lingle said.

The idea behind developing the land is to give the Leeward Coast a new economic engine that will include jobs and housing, especially affordable units to help with the state's homeless population, Lingle said.

Lingle said the state has made good progress in setting up transitional beds for homeless people, but at the end of their maximum two-year stay, "there still needs to be an affordable rental apartment for them to transition into."

"Right now, those don't exist," she said.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.