The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has terminated agreements allowing three outside entities including a prestigious K-12 academy to use portions of its West Los Angeles campus.<\/p>\n
The agency posted a notice<\/a> on its website late Monday saying it had ended leases to Brentwood School and a parking lot firm and the license for an oil pumping operation on the 388-acre property. <\/p>\n The VA said it was taking the property in furtherance of President Trump\u2019s executive order of last May calling for creation of a National Center for Warrior Independence<\/a> with housing for 6,000 veterans.<\/p>\n The notice did not say whether the school would lose access to extensive athletic facilities it built on its 22-acre leasehold. Those include a football\/soccer stadium, a baseball field, basketball pavilion, exercise equipment and a 10-lane swimming pool.<\/p>\n School officials issued a brief statement saying the VA had offered to meet with them in Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to that meeting with hopes of preserving our longstanding relationship and the extensive services Brentwood School provides that so many Veterans value.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the school\u2019s use of the facilities continued as normal.<\/p>\n The announcement threw a new twist into the tangled intersection of a federal court order<\/a> requiring the VA to build more than 2,000 housing units on the campus and Trump\u2019s executive order.<\/p>\n Although the two initiatives are nominally aligned in the goal to create more veteran housing, the VA signaled in a petition to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday that it intends to pursue an appeal of the federal court ruling. It asked for an en banc review of a three-judge panel\u2019s December ruling that affirmed the order.<\/p>\n That petition shocked attorneys representing veterans in the class-action lawsuit who said they thought they were on the verge of forming a productive relationship with the VA.<\/p>\n One of those attorneys told The Times in an interview Friday that he had two productive conversations with agency officials and found them thoughtful and deliberate.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m attempting to convey is positivity and optimism,\u201d said Roman Silberfeld of law firm Robins Kaplan. \u201cTime will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n Silberfeld\u2019s optimism arose from the agency\u2019s apparent backtracking from plans unveiled in a January court hearing to install up to 800 tiny homes<\/a> on the property. Veterans objected to the 8-foot-by-8-foot units as unsuitable. A solicitation to contractors<\/a> posted by the agency after the court hearing described a project of modular units of 120 to 390 square feet with bathrooms and kitchenettes.<\/p>\n After the petition was filed later on Friday, Silberfeld emailed a follow-up, \u201cBad VA!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA day of incalculable shame on our government,\u201d co-counsel Mark Rosenbaum of the civil rights law firm Public Counsel wrote in an email. \u201cNo prior Administration ended veteran homelessness, but none before has sunk so low by arguing to an entire appellate bench that the law must preserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n The lease terminations also introduce tension between the approaches taken by the VA and U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is overseeing the case.<\/p>\n In his judgment, Carter nullified the leases<\/a> on the grounds that they do not principally benefit veterans as required by law. He also invalidated the 10-acre lease held by UCLA for its baseball stadium and ordered the VA to immediately build temporary housing<\/a> on its parking lot.<\/p>\n But Carter took a conciliatory stance toward the Brentwood school, saying he did not want to deprive students of the facilities. He signed off on a new lease agreed to by the school and the veteran plaintiffs that increased veteran access and was limited to one year so the land could be taken back if needed for future housing.<\/p>\n