Panel
Urges Development Ban for VA
Grounds |
By Lookout Staff
September 10 -- An ongoing
effort to ban commercial development
at the West LA Veterans Administration
campus won the unanimous support last
week of the advisory panel helping
plot the site’s future.
At a meeting Thursday, the CARES
Local Advisory Panel backed a motion
by Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl
for no commercial use or development
on the sprawling VA property the federal
government has been eyeing as a potential
source of revenue.
"This is sacred, hallowed ground,"
said Rosendahl, who is an army veteran.
"It is intended to benefit veterans.
Sacrificing it to commercial development
would betray our veterans, and would
needlessly subject Westside communities
to even more traffic gridlock."
The panel also approved a second
Rosendahl motion that calls for an
investigation of several existing
commercial, or "enhanced use,"
leases at the VA Property, including
agreements with Enterprise Rental
Car and Fox Entertainment Group.
The move came two weeks after Secretary
of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson
designated three vacant buildings
-- which private developers were hoping
to tear down -- for homeless veterans
programs, capping a nearly three-year
effort spearheaded by Santa Monica
Council member Bobby Shriver,.
Nicholson’s decision paves
the way for the buildings to be used
to treat and house some of the estimated
17,000 veterans who sleep on the streets
of Los Angeles County, a seemingly
growing number of them in Santa Monica
The community-based CARES panel,
of which Rosendahl is a new member,
considered several options to modernize
the facilities at the 16 acres designated
for use on the West Los Angeles campus.
They include, constructing a new
VA hospital, renovating the existing
31-year-old hospital, building a new
VA nursing home and modernizing the
hospital’s inpatient and outpatient
mental health facilities.
Veterans groups praised Rosendahl's
efforts.
"What Council member Rosendahl
did was very heroic and desperately
needed," said Jackie Freeman,
co-chair for Veterans Coalition for
Veterans Land. "The Coalition
is supportive of the council member's
efforts to ensure that there are only
direct services to veterans at the
VA campus. Any commercialization would
hinder that goal."
"Citizens for Veterans' Rights
stands strongly behind” Rosendahl,
said Keith Jeffreys, president of
Citizens for Veterans' Rights. "His
motion guides the CARES process toward
providing veterans with the best possible
services at the VA."
Rosendahl’s motion complements
federal efforts by Senator Diane Feinstein
and U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, who have
been pushing legislation that would
forbid commercial development of the
property.
The designation of the buildings
for homeless services will allow for
the WLA VA's highly regarded Comprehensive
Homeless Center, led by William L.
Daniels, MSW, LCSW, to design and
implement long-term therapeutic supportive
services for chronically homeless
veterans.
The Fisher House, which broke ground
during the summer, provides temporary
housing for the families of patients
receiving medical care at the VA.
The West Los Angeles Veterans property
encompasses approximately 388 acres,
on the north and south sides of Wilshire
Boulevard, west of the 405 freeway.
There are 91 structures on the grounds,
which was deeded in 1888 for the sole
purpose of housing the Pacific Branch
of the National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers.
Eleven of the buildings, including
the three designated for the homeless
veterans, are currently vacant.
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