Halt on sale of Hannah Carter Japanese Garden upheld
By Erin Donnelly
Sept. 14, 2013 2:02 p.m.
This post was updated at 11:56 a.m.
The California Court of Appeal recently upheld a decision to temporarily halt the sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden, located in Bel Air near the UCLA campus, according to court documents.
On Thursday, the court rejected UCLA’s appeal of the court’s July 2012 decision to block the sale, stating that the university is contractually obligated to keep the garden.
Former UC Board of Regents Chair Edward Carter and his wife Hannah donated the garden to the university in 1965.
UCLA announced that it was trying to sell the garden in 2011. The sale did not require that the buyer keep the garden intact.
Chancellor Gene Block said in a February 2012 submission in the Daily Bruin that the garden did not serve a teaching or research purpose, and the garden had increasing maintenance costs and issues concerning parking availability.
In May 2012, the Carter family filed a lawsuit to block UCLA from selling the garden, claiming that the UCLA Board of Regents was breaking a contract that stated they would care for the garden “in perpetuity.”
A few months later, a judge said that the university is contractually obligated to keep the garden. UCLA’s appeal of that decision was rejected this week.
The university officials released a statement about the court’s decision, stating they will halt bidding on the sale for the time being.
“We continue to believe that selling the Japanese garden is in the best interests of the university. Campus resources are best applied toward UCLA’s academic mission rather than toward a garden that serves no teaching or research purpose and lacks the parking or shuttle space to operate as a public asset. The bidding and sale process will remain suspended until this matter is resolved,” the statement read.
Compiled by Yael Levin and Erin Donnelly, Bruin senior staff.
