National Harbor officials say they are hammering out the details of plans to preserve free-speech rights in public spaces at the $2 billion Prince George’s County development.
The plans are still in draft form and are not yet available, said Andre Gingles, an attorney for National Harbor, but they will include a code of conduct and a permitting process for protests. That process could become important when controversial groups rent convention rooms at Gaylord National Resort, event planners say.
The roads and other areas typically considered public space are privately owned by the developer, Peterson Cos., but were primarily paid for with public dollars. County Council members raised questions about preserving free speech after an incident last year in Silver Spring, where a man taking pictures on a Peterson-owned street was ordered to stop by security guards.
The Gaylord National Resort, with its 470,000 square feet of convention space, is in a position to attract groups far more controversial than a tourist snapping photos, said Jim Cohn, president of Mid-Atlantic Events magazine.
“All properties like this go after government associations, corporations and social organizations to rent space,” Cohn said.
Although Gaylord isn’t specifically targeting political or other controversial groups, given its size and proximity to the capital — as well as its thousands of parking spaces — it’s likely to bring groups that may have otherwise gone to the Washington Convention Center in the District, where there’s no parking, Cohn said.
The Washington Convention Center has seen its fair share of protests and been surrounded on more than one occasion by protesters clamoring for the United States to leave Iraq.
Gaylord is also nearly twice the size of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, where the World Trade Organization’s conference in 1999 led to violence as protesters and police repeatedly clashed and tear gas was fired into the unruly crowd.
Gingles declined to comment on the nature of groups potentially using space at any National Harbor site, but Cohn stressed that Gaylord is not seeking controversial groups.
