Mayor Proposes Lifting Cap for Stadium Parking

The cost of parking garages is only one part of the stadium budget that has been strained since workers broke ground in May.

According to documents provided by the sports commission, the city has allocated $17 million more in spending than anticipated, mostly to remediate environmental contamination at the site and to change the designs of retail shops outside the stadium.

Sports Commission Chief Executive Allen Y. Lew said yesterday that those changes did not affect the cost cap because the city spent $17 million less than expected in financing fees for stadium bonds on Wall Street.

But as workers prepare to install a major purchase of steel for the ballpark frame next week -- a key step in the construction process -- the project's budget appears to have run out of wiggle room, 1 1/2 years before the scheduled completion in April 2008.

Sports Commission Chairman Mark H. Tuohey said the commission was not in danger of exceeding the stadium budget. He said the council's cost cap legislation allowed for overruns for cleaning up environmental problems because no one knew for sure how contaminated the soil was at the site, once an industrial area.

Tuohey added that the cleanup, which has cost $15 million, about $7 million more than the budget authorized, is nearly complete.

"From the people I talk to, the worst is over," Tuohey said.

The question of how to build parking garages at the stadium has vexed city officials all summer. Under the stadium agreement, the city is required to provide 1,225 parking spaces to the Washington Nationals on the 20-acre site.

The Nationals' ownership group, headed by Bethesda developer Theodore N. Lerner, has lobbied the city to build two free-standing garages on the north parcel to house 925 vehicles, with a garage on the south side for the remaining 300.

But Williams and his aides have pushed for a more ambitious mix of underground and aboveground parking, along with condominiums, shops and restaurants -- the center of a larger entertainment district that would lure fans and new residents, as well as generate additional tax dollars for the city.

This summer, the city struck an agreement with developer Herbert S. Miller to build two 13-story condo towers, along with parking garages. The deal was approved by the council and the D.C. Zoning Commission, but it collapsed recently when Miller and the sports commission could not agree on financing terms.

Among other plans the city is considering for parking is paving over the five acres and providing temporary surface-level spaces, officials have said. Under that scenario, the city would try to build garages and additional development after the stadium opens.