{"id":854694,"date":"2026-04-05T06:23:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/854694\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T06:23:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:23:43","slug":"federal-planners-approve-preliminary-commanders-stadium-plan-but-have-parking-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/854694\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal planners approve preliminary Commanders stadium plan, but have parking questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some National Capital Planning Commission members had questions and concerns about the redevelopment project\u2019s two planned parking garages. <\/p>\n

\"Commanders<\/p>\n

An aerial rendering of the new Washington Commanders stadium.
\n(Courtesy Washington Commanders\/HKS) <\/p>\n

\n Courtesy Washington Commanders\/HKS <\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Renderings of parking garages around the new Washington Commander stadium.
\n(Credit HKS) <\/p>\n

\n Credit HKS <\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

A rendering showing the new Washington Commanders in front of the U.S. Capitol.
\n(Courtesy Washington Commanders\/HKS) <\/p>\n

\n Courtesy Washington Commanders\/HKS <\/p>\n

The National Capital Planning Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve preliminary site and building plans for the new Washington Commanders stadium at the former RFK Stadium site in D.C.<\/p>\n

But members raised questions and concerns about the redevelopment project\u2019s two planned parking garages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stadium looks beautiful right now, but as I\u2019ve said previously at NCPC meetings, I have rarely have ever seen a beautiful parking facility,\u201d NCPC Chair William Scharf said. \u201cSo I think understanding how that affects the overall project plan and what the stadium will actually look like to people once it\u2019s complete, I think, it\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The overall project includes as many as 8,000 parking spaces, with 75% of them in the garages and 25% in surface lots as of the stadium\u2019s opening day.<\/p>\n

At 11 stories high, the two garages could be nearly two-thirds as tall as the stadium itself. A map of the site shown at the Thursday meeting indicated the structures could also be as large or larger than the nearby D.C. Armory.\n<\/p>\n

In renderings presented<\/a> at the meeting, the garages are pictured in a few of the images, but are not the focus. In one image, the garage is transparent to better show off the stadium\u2019s east side. In another stadium view, a garage fades into the background.<\/p>\n

Commission staff member Laura Shipman said the parking garages will be developed independently from the stadium and will be separately submitted for commission approval.<\/p>\n

One commissioner questioned the garages\u2019 omission from the preliminary stadium site plan, but still voted to approve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp me understand why we\u2019re not seeing the development of those (garages) with the stadium package,\u201d said Tammy Stidham, an NCPC commissioner and National Park Service lands and planning director. \u201cThey don\u2019t have independent utility. They would not be there if you were not building a stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

NCPC staff also recommended that \u201calternative orientations\u201d and lower garage heights be considered to reduce visual impacts of views to the stadium, from Kingman Park and from other adjacent neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate the sincere interest each one of you all have shown in this garage problem, because it is truly a problem and it throws off the scale,\u201d said Kingman Park resident Frazer Walton.<\/p>\n

Walton spoke on behalf of the Friends of Kingman Park Civic Association, which he said supports the stadium redevelopment project, but opposes the construction of a parking garage next to the neighborhood for health and traffic reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alternative would be that you not build these massive parking garages, multilevel garages, and that we focus on increasing the size of the Stadium-Armory Metro site,\u201d Walton said. \u201cWe also suggest that we build a new subway stop at Oklahoma and Benning Road within the next five to seven years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some National Capital Planning Commission members had questions and concerns about the redevelopment project\u2019s two planned parking garages.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,9400,7,6,55353,35767,20165,116749,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-854694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-commanders","9":"tag-commanders-stadium","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-parking-garages","13":"tag-rfk-stadium-site","14":"tag-southeast-dc","15":"tag-tracy-johnke","16":"tag-washington","17":"tag-washington-commanders","18":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116350670044957673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854694","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=854694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}