approval from a key federal planning commission for their new stadium design at the old RFK Campus<\/a> \u2014 but a battle over massive parking garages next door may just be getting started.<\/p>\nThe National Capital Planning Commission voted to approve preliminary site and building plans for the new 70,000-seat stadium, praising the design from HKS Architects for its sweeping roofline, its architectural nods to the monumental character of Washington, and its carefully engineered sightlines that preserve views of the U.S. Capitol dome along the East Capitol Street corridor. Construction is expected to be complete in 2030.<\/p>\n
Commissioners were effusive in their praise for the stadium itself. But it was the parking garages \u2014 not part of Wednesday\u2019s vote \u2014 that generated the most friction.<\/p>\n
Two multilevel parking structures are planned to surround the stadium on opening day, together accounting for roughly 6,000 of the project\u2019s maximum 8,000 parking spaces. The proposed garages would rise up to 110 feet \u2014 eleven stories \u2014 more than half the height of the stadium itself. For comparison, the parking decks at Nationals Park stand just four stories tall.<\/p>\n
NCPC Commissioner Tammy Stidham put it plainly, saying the garages are \u201cin the way\u201d of important views and that understanding how they coordinate with the stadium design, \u201cis really important in approval of the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
NCPC Commissioner Evan Cash struck a more optimistic tone \u2014 but made clear the bar is high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have an opportunity here where we have a stadium that\u2019s really panning out to be beautiful \u2014 a lot of people didn\u2019t think we could do what we\u2019re doing there on the site,\u201d Cash said. \u201cAnd let\u2019s see if we can maybe make the garages do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s chairman William Schaffer was more blunt: \u201cI have rarely if ever seen a beautiful parking facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The harshest opposition came from the community closest to the proposed G2 garage \u2014 the structure planned near Oklahoma Avenue and Benning Road, NE, along the Anacostia River.<\/p>\n
A representative from the Kingman Park Civic Association told commissioners the neighborhood flatly opposes any multilevel parking garage near their community, warning it would bring pollution, traffic, and crime. The association called instead for a new Metro station \u2014 arguing it would eliminate the need for the garages altogether.<\/p>\n
The NCPC staff report had already flagged the G2 garage\u2019s height and proximity to Kingman Park as a concern, recommending the applicant consider lower heights and alternative orientations in future submissions.<\/p>\n
Critically, the parking garages were not subject to Wednesday\u2019s vote and will return to the commission for an entirely separate review and design process \u2014 meaning Kingman Park\u2019s fight is just beginning.<\/p>\n
The Commanders and the District\u2019s project team have not yet designed the garages. Officials told commissioners Wednesday that a request for proposals to design the structures is currently being prepared. The commission is expected to take up final approval of the stadium itself in June or July 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Capital planning commission unanimously backs preliminary stadium design while flagging concerns about massive parking structures. WASHINGTON \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,7,6,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-850396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-commanders","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-commanders","13":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}