The federal government advertised last weekend an offer to exchange the 10-acre U.S. Army Reserve Center property at Wilshire Blvd. and Federal Ave. in West Los Angeles for “replacement facilities” located elsewhere, the exchange offer to be conducted by way of online auction.
In last week’s edition, the Mirror identified “the future use and possible development” of this land as the “sleeper infrastructure issue” facing the Westside of the Los Angeles area. On Sunday, April 16, the Los Angeles Times carried an ad announcing “Prime U.S. Government Real Estate Offered for Exchange,” specifying the 10-acre parcel.
The property is zoned IT, Institutional by Los Angeles County, as it is part of the island of unincorporated county territory that includes the adjacent VA land, all surrounded by the City of Los Angeles. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told the Mirror that he thought the exchange offer was “a colossal mistake” and that he doubted the federal government had provided adequate information to prospective bidders.
Yaroslavsky, whose district includes the property, said that he had written the Institutional zoning, which is “very restricted, very constrained,” with the intent that any use be related to veterans affairs. The zoning is limited to schools, hospitals, police or fire stations, parks, government facilities, and the like, and even those uses would require a conditional use permit (“C.U.P.”), he said. About the only use permitted without a C.U.P. is that of a cemetery or a “temporary use,” and Yaroslavsky added, “Temporary really means temporary.”
Next week, the supervisor will travel to Washington where he will meet with the area’s Congressional delegation and press for a “comprehensive land use plan for the whole federal land” including the VA operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 11000 Wilshire property operated by the General Services Administration as well as the “exchange property” operated by the U.S. Army.
The proposed exchange “will be offered via an online auction,” according to the ad in the Times. “As consideration for the Exchange Parcel,” the ad stated, “the Government requires replacement facilities as new construction or construction of additions or alterations of existing facilities on Government property at Bell, CA, Miramar, CA and Riverside, CA.”
