Potential buyers for the Coos Head property tour the 43-acre site in June. The Air National Guard closed the facility in 1996. World File Photo

A Coos Bay tribe's lawsuit aimed at forcing the federal government to consider its application for a prized piece of property at Coos Head was dismissed after the General Services Administration consented to entertain the tribe's bid.

Attorneys involved in the lawsuit said legal action became moot when the GSA in August agreed willingly to consider an application to transfer Coos Head under a process that gives federal agencies first dibs on abandoned government property.

Francis Somday, tribal administrator for the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, said he saw the dismissal as a victory for the tribes even though GSA has not made a final decision on whether to grant it the former Air National Guard base.

"The question is would GSA have done what it did without the tribe forcing a lawsuit?" Somday said. "It's very doubtful."

In early July, the tribes filed suit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the GSA, accusing both agencies of not meeting their legal obligations through the federal disposal process. The suit also asked the court to hold the transfer of the property until a decision was rendered.

"Clearly, the filing of the case has made GSA hold to that legal standard," Somday said.

James Biederman, project manager for the GSA, said the agency may not make a decision regarding the request for another two weeks.

"We're reviewing BIA's request to do the transfer at the excess level," Biederman said. "We haven't made a decision on that request."

According to Bill Dubray, a GSA field representative, the administration will consider first whether to open the excess process. If it decides in favor of the tribes, the GSA will then consider the application to transfer the property.

However Somday said the tribe and its attorneys have been told the GSA already is considering the application to transfer the land.

Located near the Charleston headlands, the 43-acre Coos Head property was closed by the Air National Guard in 1996 and has been a coveted parcel for its sweeping vistas of the Oregon coastline.

The disposal of the property has been delayed, partly due to benzene that leaked from underground storage tanks owned by the military and contaminated the groundwater. The government has worked for several years to clean up the spill sites. The property is not expected to be cleared for disposal until 2006. Documents regarding the cleanup indicate the government expects to clean the benzene to meet air-quality standards but not the more stringent water-quality regulations.

Should the GSA decide to consider the application under the excess process, the tribes would receive priority over other applicants because the process gives federal entities first choice of government property.

The tribes had apparently lost that entitlement in May, after the BIA failed to meet a deadline to enter the application. The GSA already had granted the BIA a 30-day extension but when the BIA missed the filing deadline, the administration moved to the second stage of the disposal process. The application process then was opened to local agencies and groups who could receive federal sponsorship.

"We made the property available at the excess level to federal entities for quite a long period of time," Biederman said. "When we didn't get the application from BIA, we went on to the surplus level."

At the surplus level, the property became available to any entity that could garner federal sponsorship. Among the applicants were Coos County and the Oregon Coastal Environments Awareness Network.

Commissioner John Griffith said the Board of Commissioners has not discussed taking any legal action if the GSA grants the tribes' request for the property. The county appeared to have equal opportunity to purchase the property when the process moved to the surplus stage but it would be pushed behind the tribes if the process were reopened.

The county had promoted the property as a good economic development tool that could be used to place restaurants, a high-end hotel or housing. The tribes said they have had plans to use the property to place an educational and interpretive center and a resort.

"I don't care who gets credit for stuff," Griffith said. "I just want it because the people in this county need things to improve this community."

Similarly, OCEAN representative Trish Mace said her group is interested only in working with whoever does receive the property to ensure public access is maintained.

"If the tribes do get the property, OCEAN would not only be interested but could offer a lot to the tribe in helping them develop some of the plans they were involved with in that community process initially," she said.

OCEAN's membership brings diverse groups to the table. Its board includes representatives from Southwestern Oregon Community College, the U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation, the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, the South Slough National Estuarine Reserve and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The nonprofit's mission statement indicates the group wants "to provide a forum to plan, facilitate and promote information and programs related to natural and cultural resources for residents and visitor to the region."

The tribes' suit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the tribes could refile if the GSA denies the BIA's application to reopen the federal excess process.

"GSA is held to a federal standard," Somday said. "If they don't comply with that standard, make an arbitrary and capricious decision, we will refile the lawsuit."