A sign outside UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium commemorates the school's NCAA 2013 championship title. The university will attempt to challenge a recent federal ruling that nullified the stadium's lease on VA grounds. (Photo by Aaron Liu/ Neon Tommy)

The Department of Veterans Affairs owns "one of the most valuable parcels of real estate in the western United States" -- 388 acres of land in the densely-packed Brentwood neighborhood. The VA, the neighborhood and homeless veteran advocates all disagree when it comes to the issue of land use. 

On one hand, the West L.A. VA has appropriated one third of its property for commercial uses, including a hotel laundry service, parking space for a rental car company, storage for a movie studio and athletic centers for UCLA and Brentwood School. Meanwhile, veteran's advocates have long argued that the needs of homeless veterans should take priority over commercial deals. They convinced the American Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit in 2011 challenging the VA's land deals.

In late August, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero ruled that the VA broke the law by leasing property for commercial purposes. Otero stopped short of immediately terminating the leases and instead gave the VA six months to appeal. 

In legal motions filed late September, UCLA and Brentwood contended that they "did not understand" they could intervene until after the ruling.  

"UCLA's ability to use a baseball stadium that occupies a relatively small corner of the VA's West Los Angeles campus was a surprising casualty of this ambitious and well-intentioned lawsuit," said UCLA in their motion. The university filed the request after meeting with the VA's lawyers, who told the university that the VA could "not commit" to filing an appeal. The school will attempt to save Jackie Robinson Stadium on the grounds that the the case did not include the university as a defendent.  

Brentwood School argued that their presence on VA grounds counts as a service towards veterans, since the school "makes its athletic facilities, including its gym, fields and aquatics center, available to therapeutic programs involving veterans, as well as other members of the VA hospital and community."

The documents also revealed that the private school has doled out $4.5 million total in monthly payments to the VA since the mid-90s. 

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