UCLA offers proposal for use of baseball stadium amid VA housing lawsuit
WEST LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- After UCLA was locked out of its baseball stadium on the VA's West Los Angeles campus by a federal judge who terminated the lease, the university has come up with a proposal on how the 10 acres it rented on VA grounds for decades can be used primarily for the benefit of the military veterans for whom the land was originally deeded.
The shutdown order was issued Sept. 25 after a court hearing in which U.S. District Judge David O. Carter voiced frustration at UCLA and other ex-leaseholders at the VA's West Los Angeles campus for not offering satisfactory uses for land that he ruled had been illegally contracted from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
As a result of the injunction, UCLA's baseball team rushed to collect their equipment and vacate the premises on the morning of Sept. 26, before VA security placed locks on all entrances and exit gates to the Jackie Robinson Stadium and an adjacent practice field and posted no trespassing signs.
In a modified proposal filed with the court Thursday, UCLA said it would increase the rent it pays the VA from the current $320,000 annually to a total of $600,000 for the next 12 months. In addition, the university said it will continue its longstanding program of providing health care services to veterans at the UCLA Hospital and Medical School at little or no cost. UCLA also offered to cede at least 2 acres in 12 months -- and potentially more if necessary.
UCLA said veterans additionally receive care from students at the UCLA School of Dentistry, UCLA School of Nursing, and UCLA Department of Social Work. The university contends that services provided to veterans are valued at $2.7 million.
The judge, who ordered that 220 housing units for needy veterans be built on the stadium parking lot site, did not immediately rule on the proposal.
In its filing, UCLA argued that in 2016, Congress "expressly authorized UCLA to continue playing baseball at the site, in exchange for veteran-focused consideration that UCLA has not simply met, but substantially exceeded."
Carter also voided the lease for the private Brentwood School's athletic center on VA grounds, saying he would order the facility "bulldozed" and its swimming pool "filled with sand" unless the school devised a way for military veterans to use the sports center, along with the student body.
The judge issued a strongly worded ruling last month in which he blasted the VA for "turning its back" on the veterans it was designed to help by illegally leasing portions of the campus to UCLA's baseball team, the affluent Brentwood School, an oil company, and other private interests on the West Los Angeles campus.
The school last month first offered up 5 acres of the 22 acres it had leased from the VA and promised to greatly expand hours for veterans to use the athletic complex. But after a group of veterans met in the back of the courtroom and sized up the deal, Carter gave the proposal a thumbs down.
Carter said veterans "own" what was previously the school's land unless his orders were eventually reversed by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It does not appear an appeal has yet been launched.
Wednesday, the judge heard a new proposal from the Brentwood School.
The school offered, as part of a settlement agreement, to provide the $2 million needed to complete the restoration of the Wadsworth Chapel on Wilshire Boulevard. The historic chapel, the oldest remaining building on the VA West Los Angeles campus, was considered the spiritual center of what was originally deeded as a soldier's home for Civil War-era veterans. The building is in desperate need of repair, the judge said.
Carter also previously ordered one of the oil wells on the campus capped. The well, used to access oil not directly below the campus, is the only one the judge has authority over based on the types of lease agreements involved.
The developments stem from a monthlong non-jury trial of a lawsuit lodged in federal court against the VA by a group of unhoused veterans with disabilities, challenging land lease agreements and seeking housing on the campus for veterans in need, many of whom are homeless or must travel for hours to see their doctors. The judge found for the plaintiffs.
Another hearing to help reach resolution in the litigation's remaining issues is scheduled for Monday in downtown Los Angeles.
Over the past five decades, Carter wrote, the VA in West L.A. "has been infected by bribery, corruption, and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and enabled by a major educational institution in excluding veterans' input about their own lands."
During the trial, the VA argued that it is out of space on its 388-acre campus, and that the lack of available acreage precludes any increase to the 1,200 housing units the agency promised to open by 2030. VA attorneys alleged that any relief ordered by the court would burden the department financially and deprive it of the flexibility needed to solve veteran homelessness.
Ultimately, the court found that veterans are entitled to more than 2,500 units of housing at the campus "and termination of the illegal land-use agreements."
Carter previously said the court would determine an "exit strategy" for former tenants in order to ensure the land -- including the 10 acres rented to UCLA and 22 acres leased to the Brentwood School -- is put to a use that principally benefits veterans.
The judge's ruling orders the VA to build 750 units of temporary housing within 18 months and to form a plan within six months to add another 1,800 units of permanent housing to the roughly 1,200 units already in planning and construction under the settlement terms of an earlier lawsuit.
Carter, himself a Vietnam War veteran, found that the VA "has allowed the drastic reduction of the size of the original plot of land deeded in 1888 to be an old soldiers' home. In a series of lengthy, renewable leases, the VA authorized leaseholders to build permanent athletic facilities -- after permitting these concrete structures to be built on veterans' land."
The judge held that for years the VA -- budgeted at $407 billion annually -- has "quietly sold off" land badly needed for injured and homeless military veterans.
VA press secretary Terrence Hayes declined to comment on the judge's findings regarding the former leaseholders.
A UCLA representative said last month that the university and VA have had a "longstanding public service partnership" over more than 70 years.
"Working with the VA to serve veterans continues to be one of our key objectives as part of UCLA's mission of teaching, research and public service," according to UCLA. "We are reviewing the judge's (leaseholder) decision to determine how it will affect our partnership with the VA."
