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By Lookout Staff
May 24 -- In a move to help boost housing for local
homeless veterans and curb overdevelopment, two LA City Council
members introduced a resolution Wednesday supporting federal
legislation that would prohibit any commercial use and development
of the Veterans Affairs property in West LA.
Backed by LA Council members Bill Rosendahl and Jack Weiss,
the resolution supports legislation requiring the Veterans'
Administration to include special leasing provisions to provide
services for homeless veterans and their families under a
comprehensive master plan for use of the federal land.
The legislation specifically ensures that the Department
of Veterans Affairs does not deem any land as excess, and
does not take action to “exchange, trade, auction, transfer,
or otherwise dispose of, or reduce the acreage of the VA property,”
according to Rosendahl’s office.
The legislation would help to protect the Westside from overdevelopment,
increased traffic gridlock and the loss of much-needed veterans'
land, Rosendahl and Weiss said.
"The Westside is at a boiling point,” said Rosendahl,
who represents the 11th District, which surrounds Santa Monica.
“We are continuously besieged by overdevelopment and
traffic gridlock and cannot allow for piecemeal land-use decisions.
"The VA property is intended for veteran use, not private
development,” he said.
Introduced by Congressman Henry Waxman and Senator Dianne
Feinstein, the West Los Angeles Department of Veterans Affairs
Medical Center Preservation Act of 2007 bans the Department
of Veterans Affairs from selling any portion of the federal
property for private use and entering into enhanced-use leases
on the land.
Developers have been eyeing the 388-acre campus -- on the
north and south sides of Wilshire Boulevard west of the 405
freeway -- as a financial windfall if they can tear down the
existing buildings and develop million dollar condominiums
on the prime Westside real estate.
Nearby homeowners have mounted a lobbying effort opposing
the plan to house homeless vets and provide services. They
fear the housing will be reserved for the chronically homeless
and that addicts will be allowed admittance into the center
without the proper treatment required for detoxification.
Santa Monica City Council member Bobby Shriver, who has spearheaded
the effort to set aside three buildings on the VA grounds
for homeless housing and services, is hopeful the plan is
gaining momentum.
“It is a crime to have veterans -- an estimated 15,000
to 20,000 of them -- living on Los Angeles County streets
while buildings stand unused or underused on land that was
donated for the exclusive benefit of veterans,” Shriver
told The Lookout in an interview earlier this month.
Shriver recently participated in a West LA Veterans’
Forum, along with U.S. Representatives Jane Harman and Bob
Filner, who chairs the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’
Affairs, which controls the VA’s budget.
“He pledged to urge the VA to designate the three buildings
for homeless housing right away, or, if necessary, introduce
legislation to have it done,” Shriver said. “We
are hopeful for success soon.”
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