County officials file suit against Army’s proposed land swap
By Derek Lipkin
May 31, 2006 9:00 p.m.
Los Angeles County officials filed a lawsuit against the U.S.
Army on Wednesday to stop the proposed land swap of a 10-acre
parcel of property located adjacent to Westwood.
The land swap is a proposed property exchange by the Army, where
the highest bidder in an online auction will receive the 10-acre
parcel of land ““ currently used by the U.S. Army Reserve
““ while agreeing to construct replacement Army facilities on
existing government property across Southern California.
The parcel in question lies on the southeast corner of the
intersection of Federal Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, near
Westwood.
The planned swap was originally announced in an advertisement by
the Army in the Los Angeles Times in April.
The complaint, which was formally announced and submitted to the
U.S. District Court in Los Angeles during a press conference on
Wednesday, states that the county is suing the Army for its alleged
“failure to comply with the National Environmental Policy
Act” in its disposal of the 10-acre parcel.
Both local officials and community members are concerned about
the impact the swap could have on the surrounding community,
including UCLA.
“We believe that property should stay in public hands for
veterans’ uses,” said Joel Bellman, the press deputy
for County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who has publicly stated his
opposition to the proposed land swap.
Yaroslavsky and other state representatives, including Sen.
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have come out against the development of
Veterans Affairs properties in the past few months, as have several
concerned community members. They believe the federal property
rightly belongs to the veterans community and should not be put to
non-veteran uses.
Bellman said the land swap is one of three recent proposals for
Veterans Affairs properties. One proposal, which came from the
General Services Administration, aims to expand the Wilshire
Federal Building by several hundred thousand square feet, to become
the new Southern California FBI headquarters.
Bellman said county officials would like the Army to halt the
swap without going to court to settle the matter, and
representatives may use an injunction or other means to prevent the
land swap from taking place.
“We would like them to be good neighbors,” he
said.
The 10-acre parcel is currently zoned for institutional uses,
such as schools or libraries. Yaroslavsky stated in April that he
would oppose any rezoning of the area, adding that he and local
officials were “on the same page.”
Bellman said any private developer would be subject to the
zoning and environmental laws set by the county.
For now, he said county representatives will wait to see how the
Army responds to the complaint before making any more moves.
“We believe the donors and heirs have every right to
expect that property will stay in public hands,” Bellman
said, adding that the land should not simply be sold to pay down
the federal deficit.
Representatives from Staubach Co., a marketing firm working with
the Army to handle the exchange, were unavailable for comment
Wednesday.
Laura Lake, co-chair for the Federal Building Coalition, said
her organization was “thrilled” at the news of the
lawsuit being filed.
“We very much appreciate Supervisor Yaroslavsky’s
leadership on this serious, serious issue for veterans and their
neighbors,” she said in a phone message Wednesday.
