Nursing Homes Planned at VA’s Westside Complex

Eager to make peace with Brentwood neighbors, VA administrators have outlined a 25-year master plan for their sprawling Westside hospital grounds that calls for construction of nursing homes for aging veterans--and a permanent buffer zone for nearby homeowners.

“We don’t want the community surprised” ever again by land development deals at the 460-acre site, said Philip P. Thomas, head of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

Officials disclosed their development plans Thursday night to about 100 residents and veterans group representatives--some of whom were seething over what they consider to be the outright giveaway in the past of valuable hospital land to outsiders.

The most recent controversy, the lease of a 21-acre parcel to the exclusive Brentwood School for development into a $3-million sports complex, has been criticized by some Brentwood residents and business leaders as a “sweetheart deal” that will cost taxpayers millions.

Department of Veterans Affairs officials and private consultants hired to help with long-range planning said there is no timetable for specific projects at the Brentwood grounds. But they indicated that new construction will take place in areas near existing facilities.

Under consideration are a 400-bed “assisted living” facility for elderly veterans, a 180-bed VA nursing home, a 60-bed Alzheimer’s unit and a state-run veterans nursing home that would allow spouses to live with aging patients.

Other potential projects include a 75,000-square-foot pharmacy that would handle mail-out prescriptions for veterans and a 300,000-square-foot office building that would house VA benefits workers. That project would save the VA about $5 million a year in rent now paid for five floors in the Westwood Federal Building, Thomas said.

The master plan was requested two years ago by the House Veterans Affairs Committee. That panel oversees the VA and has been barraged in the past by complaints from veterans groups and others who charge that outside interests are nibbling away at the Brentwood hospital land.

Thomas said veterans services will remain the top priority at the Brentwood site. But leftover land could be up for grabs, provided future projects are compatible with the community and generate revenue for the VA.

Thomas suggested that he inherited controversy when he took over as chief executive officer of the local VA health system two years ago.

“We don’t want the community surprised by what happens on the grounds,” he said, referring to past leases approved by the VA. “I do not and will not engage in surprises.”

Planning for the Brentwood site takes into account the aging of the current veteran population, officials said.

About 25% of the Brentwood site is now designated “protected” from permanent development through federal legislation pressed in the 1980s by former Sen. Alan Cranston, said Mike Metcalfe, a planning consultant working with the VA.

Areas of the hospital grounds deemed suitable for development will be depicted on maps that Metcalfe and other consultants hope to release for public review at the end of March. The master plan will then be reviewed by VA officials in Washington before being forwarded to the Veterans Affairs Committee.

Members of the congressional panel have indicated that future Brentwood hospital land-use proposals will be closely scrutinized. Last year, the 1999 lease negotiated by Brentwood School for the sports field site was strongly criticized by Illinois Rep. Lane Evans, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

An in-house VA review later concluded that the lease arrangement was legal, although critics in Brentwood continue to grumble that the prime acreage was leased millions of dollars too cheaply.

The planners suggested Thursday night that the nursing home facilities will be built north of Wilshire Boulevard, among existing hospital facilities. The office building would probably be constructed south of Wilshire, next to the current main hospital. The pharmacy would likely be built on the east side of the grounds, north of Wilshire.

A thin buffer zone of open space would be preserved to shield homeowners to the east and apartment dwellers to the west from the new development, planners indicated.