Dog Park, Tenants Battle With VA Over Land

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A popular dog park, baseball fields and the private Brentwood School are among tenants in Brentwood’s Barrington Park still engaged in a long fight with the Veteran’s Administration. They want to hang on to their leases but the VA is transforming its 388-acre campus into a veterans’ village.

Although the VA had pledged to formulate “exit strategies” for leaseholders that were not “veteran-centric,” the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that several of those leaseholders are still lobbying and hiring lawyers to help them retain their leases.

The VA says that only tenants that pay fair market rent and offer direct benefits to veterans and their families would be allowed to remain. Commercial tenants, including a hotel laundry service and a movie-set storage lot, have been ousted while other leaseholders have received exit notices.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, who originally supported keeping the dog park when it was nearly closed last October, as well as public ball fields, now said resident access is “conditional” and could end if the VA has other plans.

“The West L.A. VA is here, first and foremost, to serve our veterans,” Connie Llanos, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “The mayor is also committed to ensuring that open space is put to good community use.”

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