The D.C. Council rejected a pitch Wednesday to build two aboveground parking garages adjacent to the Washington Nationals’ new ballpark, leaving the District government at square one on an issue it is running out of time to resolve.
Five council members banded together to kill emergency legislation for a last-ditch parking plan. Supporters needed nine votes; they got eight.
“This is not doomsday,” Ward said 8 Council Member Marion Barry. “This is the wrong way to go.”
Under the District’s agreement with Major League Baseball, the city must have 1,225 parking spaces at the stadium site ready by Opening Day 2008, or face lawsuits and financial penalties. The ballpark legislation capped public financing at $611 million and included only $25 million for parking.
With time running out, Ward 4 D.C. Council Member Adrian Fenty, the Democratic nominee for mayor, submitted a $56 million proposal to build a pair of three-story aboveground garages on the north side of the stadium, in addition to an underground garage on the south side.
The garages were to be reinforced to support retail or residential development at a later date, but would have included nothing more than a Nationals store in 2008. It’s a compromise, Fenty said, “that allows a great project to move forward.”
“If this is voted down, all the time in the world will not allow us to come to an agreement,” Fenty said.
But the cost cap stood in the way, as did critical issues surrounding the development of aboveground garages.
And the presumptive mayor was unable to twist enough arms to pull the project through.
“I don’t care how they define it; it’s above the cap,” Council Member Carol Schwartz said. “Now that’s not what I bargained for.”
The District may have no choice but to simply pave over the lots on the north and south sides of the stadium property, said Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, putting the city in violation of the lease agreement but at least providing a semblance of on-site parking.
Meanwhile, outgoing Council Chairman Linda Cropp urged her colleagues to move forward. Construction, she said, must start within weeks in order to meet the deadline.
“We don’t have to be tied to a development plan,” Cropp said. “But we do have to be tied to building the parking spaces and have them available for opening day.”
