Team Owners Push Aboveground Plan as a Backup to Mayor's Deal
By David Nakamura and Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Washington Nationals owner Theodore N. Lerner urged Mayor Anthony A. Williams yesterday to pursue two different parking plans for the new baseball stadium as they prepare for a key hearing before the D.C. Zoning Commission on Monday.
Lerner wants city officials to adopt his proposal for aboveground-only parking as a backup if the mayor's plan for parking aboveground and below falls through.
Williams (D) said Tuesday that the city will build a mix of underground and aboveground parking surrounded by shops, restaurants, 660 condos and a hotel that will be the hub of an entertainment district. The Lerner group stressed that it will agree but asks that the city consider the group's plan for aboveground parking with no other development as a Plan B.
"The mayor has blessed the proposal to put development on top of the parking. To the extent that all the stars align with zoning approvals and financing . . . we'll move forward with that plan," said Mark H. Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, which is overseeing stadium construction. "The Lerners understand that. They have a different strategy. We're trying to make it work, but if it does not work, we'll revert to just aboveground parking."
The discussion between Lerner and Williams was followed by several additional meetings between the ownership group and city officials to try to reach a consensus heading into three critical weeks for the project.
The city's chief financial officer, Natwar M. Gandhi, is analyzing whether he can certify the money is available for the city's parking plan. D.C. Council member Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) has scheduled a hearing on the stadium July 6. And the council will vote July 11 on a resolution to transfer development rights on the stadium site near South Capitol Street and the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington to private developers.
Funding for the city's parking plan is critical. The council's stadium budget includes $21 million for garages. Herbert S. Miller, president of Western Development, which proposed the mixed-use plan, has said the California Public Employees' Retirement System will finance the $300 million tab for the complex. Gandhi is awaiting a letter from that organization, but the pension fund managers want the D.C. Zoning Commission's ruling on the parking plan before they send the letter, District officials said.
The Lerner group raised concerns about the city's parking approach hours after Williams's news conference Tuesday and called his announcement "premature."
Asked yesterday whether the two sides were closer to consensus, Edward Cohen, Lerner's son-in-law, who was at the meetings with city officials, said, "Everyone's raising questions, and we're trying to get some answers."
The Zoning Commission will hear the city's plans for the entire stadium project, including the parking garages and additional development. The city's zoning rules require underground parking at the site, but the city and the Lerner group agree that there is not enough time or money to build the entire structure underground by April 2008, when the stadium must open under the deal with Major League Baseball.
Mayoral spokesman Vince Morris said the city is proceeding "full speed ahead" with the plan Williams announced Tuesday, which includes 900 parking spaces underground and two 13-story structures and 928 parking spaces aboveground.
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