This post was updated Oct. 23 at 12:41 p.m.

​​The United States Department of Veterans Affairs was ordered to begin plans for new modular housing to be built on the parking lot space of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Baseball Stadium.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter ordered the VA to select a vendor for the housing by Tuesday and to draft a contract within three weeks following that. Thirty-two units of the housing will be placed in the parking lot – known as Magenta B – of the stadium, with the rest being placed on two other parcels of VA property. 

[Related: UCLA baseball stadium ordered to close until land is used to serve veterans]

In an Oct. 7 ruling, Carter ordered the VA to create a plan to find a vendor within 30 days and to install the units within 45 days, but Friday’s ruling extended the timeline after VA officials agreed to the requirement but said contracting, site development and installation could not be done within the original timeframe, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Litigation between the defendants and veterans advocates has been going on for three months.

UCLA Media Relations declined to comment on the decision, instead pointing to an appeal UCLA filed Wednesday. The appeal, filed on behalf of the UC Regents, claimed the original injunction filed in September caused irreparable harm to the university. 

“The Regents were hopeful that the district court would modify the injunction to temporarily alleviate the most serious of the irreparable harm that has been inflicted since entry of the unlawful September 26, 2024 injunction,” the appeal said. “But still having received no relief from the district court as of the October 11, 2024 hearing, and remaining barred from its lawful leasehold since September 26, 2024, the Regents can wait no longer and must seek this Court’s emergency intervention now.” 

One of the reasons for appealing the original ruling was that the use of the stadium goes beyond simply playing baseball, citing that the stadium is also used by UCLA medical professionals to provide health care. 

The appeal also claimed UCLA provides events and programs that benefit veterans on campus, saying UCLA provides a total of 4,272 hours of programs and events for veterans per year but only uses the stadium for athletics for an average of 980 hours per year. 

Carter denied the motion Wednesday, ruling that the appeal motion was untimely. In the decision, Carter said UCLA has known about the concerns around its activity with its lease agreement since the original 2022 lawsuit and that decisions and posttrial opinions are already underway. 

“UCLA seeks to relitigate issues that have already been resolved, reopen a case that has already been litigated, and stall the collaborative process the Parties have tediously worked towards,” Carter said. “UCLA’s delay prejudices the disabled veterans that brought this lawsuit and the thousands of other disabled veterans that VA serves and stand to benefit from increased housing on the West LA VA Campus.”

The decision is a part of a larger ruling that follows a four-week civil trial, which prompted the VA to build 750 units of temporary housing on the West Los Angeles VA campus and an additional 1,800 units of permanent housing to address veteran homelessness.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of veterans by the nonprofit Public Counsel, claimed the VA failed to uphold its duty to serve disabled and homeless veterans by building permanent structures on VA land that do not primarily serve veterans. 

According to the Times, UCLA filed an initial appeal Sept. 25 presenting a proposal to increase the amount UCLA pays in rent for the land and to “cede” back two acres of the leased 10 acres, though Carter rejected the appeal. 

Jackie Robinson Baseball Stadium closed Sept. 26 as a result of Carter’s order to halt the stadium’s use until UCLA creates a plan for the land to be used in a way that primarily serves veterans and meets Carter’s expectations.