Alexandria should not pursue a legal battle with the Pentagon over the Mark Center, the city’s attorney told City Council on Monday.
The legal advice mirrors that given to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last week, when attorneys determined the county doesn’t have the legal authority to challenge the military’s shift of 6,400 defense workers to the Mark Center in September.
The move is a part of the Army’s Base Realignment and Closure plan, also known as BRAC.
Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., has encouraged local elected officials to join together with the state to sue the Pentagon in an attempt to delay the move to Mark Center, located at the intersection of I-395 and Seminary Road, where already heavily congested roads are expected to get worse once thousands of defense workers start commuting there.
But BRAC was designed specifically to prevent local officials from mounting a successful lawsuit, according to Alexandria city attorney James Banks
“The BRAC statute itself was created and enacted in such a way as to really prevent [a lawsuit],” Banks said.
