A bitterly contested proposal to create apartments for sober-living homeless veterans at the Sepulveda VA complex in North Hills appears dead on arrival.
Citing a lack of jurisdiction, a Los Angeles zoning administrator declined to issue a variance to develop 147 privately managed apartments targeted for chemically dependent and disabled homeless veterans on public Veterans Affairs property.
"The city has no jurisdiction over federally owned property," Associate Zoning Administrator Linn K. Wyatt wrote in a 22-page ruling issued Friday, "and therefore issuance of the variance grant would not be legally binding."
Since Veterans Affairs officials have refused to formally accept responsibility for apartment operations, Wyatt said the city had no way to enforce the conditions of its permit.
Proponents have until May 28 to appeal the decision.
Wyatt’s ruling took A Community of Friends, the project developer, and New Directions, the would-be operator of its supportive housing complex, by surprise.
"We’re clearly disappointed in the denial," said Dora Leong Gallo, executive director of the Friends group. "And reading it, we’re confused. For us, it’s not a simple matter.
"We feel we really must review this carefully to see what the city is telling us."
Gallo said it was too early to say if both nonprofit groups would appeal.
Wyatt’s ruling had been eagerly awaited by veterans and neighborhood groups that for years have opposed plans to build a $40 million affordable housing complex in two former medical buildings on the 160-acre North Hills campus.
"I sat down and bawled for about an hour, because I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude," said Peggy Burgess of the North Hills West Neighborhood Council, one of five local councils against the project. "It’s a small victory in what is assuredly a very long war.
"They want the land so badly and are not going to give up easily."
Opponents had argued in a packed public hearing in February that the 75-year lease the VA issued to the nonprofit developer and social support operator would open the complex to non-veterans. They said it would also pave the way for a sell-off of VA lands earmarked to support American service vets.
"A 75-year lease is a tacit giveaway of the land for use by potential non-veterans," said Lawrence Van Kuran, adjutant for the 20th District American Legion, which represents nearly 5,000 veterans in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys and was among 10 veterans service organizations to oppose the project. "The American Legion has a problem with that, and most vets do.
"We object to this. Ultimately, if we had our dream, we’d see the Sepulveda VA come back as a (full) medical center, but it’s an uphill battle."
Backers of the facility had once said that in order to satisfy Fair Housing laws – and secure federal funds – they could not limit services to veterans, but would give veterans "preference" in applying for units. They said clients would be culled from an estimated 20,000 homeless veterans in and around Los Angeles County who had been clean and sober for at least six months.
But the project developer said that federal housing officials reversed their opposition to a "veterans-only" facility after state and federal legislation was signed last year. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced its ruling Friday in favor of a veterans’ bias, the same day Wyatt put the kibosh on the development.
"The proponents of the project are on the same side as those opposing it," said Gallo, the Friends executive. "We believe the project should serve only veterans."
City Councilman Greig Smith, who had once threatened to sue Uncle Sam if non-vets were allowed to use Sepulveda VA, reiterated his opposition to the affordable housing complex Monday if it weren’t set up exclusively for veterans.
In letters to the Los Angeles-based developer and New Directions agencies, he lambasted officials for failing to obtain local support, especially from veterans’ groups.
"As a veteran myself and father of a young man currently serving active duty in the United States Navy, and as a patriot, I take the matter of caring for our veterans extremely seriously," said Smith, whose district includes the VA. "… Unless you can modify the agreements as such, and obtain local support, I urge you not to appeal the (zoning administrator’s) decision."
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