Plans for veterans complex disputed

Just west of the 405 Freeway, Wilshire Boulevard snakes its way through the largest veterans site in the nation – the West Los Angeles Veteran Affairs complex.

Encompassing nearly 400 acres, it is the focus of a looming showdown between local and state officials, veterans’ groups, and the federal government.

Negotiations among these parties on how to develop the VA site have gone on for months and have included plans to construct new buildings, businesses and housing.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said in order to streamline costs and ensure modern health care facilities for veterans, it must explore commercial uses of the site. The department wants to use the VA site for construction of facilities that would meet the increased demand for patient care as the baby-boomer population ages.

But some politicians are skeptical of the government’s motives, fearing that any commercial reuse of the land will not meet the needs of those whom the site was originally built to serve – military veterans.

“It’s really disheartening. The big-wigs in Washington are eyeing the property and seeing dollars,” said Lisa Pinto, district director to Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, speaking at a breakfast panel Friday morning put on by the Westside Urban Forum.

The forum allowed panelists who are against the government’s reuse plan to voice their opposition.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the site rests on “the most valuable real estate in the U.S.,” but that commercial development of the area is not an option.

Yaroslavsky said the government’s current reuse plan for the West Los Angeles VA is due in part to the war in Iraq, which has forced the Department of Defense to look for alternative ways to generate funding.

“Veterans ... deserve better than this. Don’t balance the budget on the backs of (military) vets,” Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky said he supports building on the site in order to provide direct services to veterans, such as housing.

He also said he wants to keep the West Los Angeles VA from developing into a mixed-use site, where veterans would be forced to share the land with businesspeople.

Army veteran Keith Jeffreys, vice president of Citizens for Veterans Rights, said there are more than 18,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles County who need to be served by the site.

Instead of commercial office buildings, Jeffreys said he wants to see treatment facilities that help veterans who suffer from mental illness, drug abuse and homelessness.

People on both sides of the argument agree that the West Los Angeles VA complex faces many structural challenges.

A report by the Department of Veterans Affairs found that the complex’s underground storm drainage system is not adequate for the large amount of land it must serve, and that many facilities have experienced numerous leaks.

In addition to structural problems, the current landscape of the site contrasts sharply with what it was in the years following World War II.

“This used to be a beautifully landscaped oasis,” Pinto said.

Over the years, UCLA has developed a relationship with the West Los Angeles complex. The David Geffen School of Medicine conducts clinical teaching and research programs at the site, and Jackie Robinson Stadium is located there.

It is unknown how future development would affect UCLA activities on the site.

But panelist Flora Krisiloff, president of the Brentwood Community Council, said that UCLA commuters can expect an increase in traffic in the area as more buildings are added.

A public hearing will be held in December in Los Angeles to discuss the site’s future.

If political pressure is not enough to discourage the federal government to ease its zest for the property, Yaroslavsky said he would not hesitate to “tie up” the federal government in court.

“We come with an olive branch and a spear,” Yaroslavsky said.