Zoning Commission Gives New DC Soccer Stadium the Green Light

by | Mar 7, 2017

As featured on Urban Turf

A rendering of the public park planned for the stadium.

After years of planning and months of consideration and debate, the Zoning Commission gave the new DC United soccer stadium unanimous, if not glowing, approval on Thursday night.

Upon the request of the commission, the development team and various city agencies responded point-by-point to various concerns enumerated by the ANC 6D last month. The commission walked through the main parts of those concerns and while they found that most items had been addressed sufficiently, the application was still far from ideal.

“I still do feel like this application left something to be desired,” commissioner Peter May said. “It just kind of barely makes it,” he continued, citing the “passable” responses to questions of environmental and traffic mitigation and his “disappointment” with the design.

Commissioner Michael Turnbull also noted multiple passages throughout the draft order submitted by the applicant, that the commission had commented on, where the language can be interpreted to place partial responsibility on the commission or imply that the commission is complicit with the developer’s assertions. “There are significant issues in the order that need to be addressed,” he stated.

Chairman Anthony Hood agreed with those comments throughout the hearing. “It’s not going to be signed until we’ve all reviewed it again.” An order will accompany the commission’s affirmative vote to identify what the commission believes should be corrected.

The new stadium would anchor the transformation of the Buzzard Point (map) neighborhood and serve as the new home of DC’s soccer team in 2019 after their lease at RFK Stadium expires.

The stadium’s naming rights were awarded to Audi earlier in the week.

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