Introduction of the Rfk Memorial Stadium Campus Conveyance Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce a bill, the RFK Memorial Stadium Campus Conveyance Act, to direct the federal government to sell for fair market value the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (RFK) to the District of Columbia.
RFK, once an active sports stadium, for years has been a rusted stadium surrounded by deterioration and several parking lots. The District leases the RFK site from the Department of the Interior and, under the terms of the lease, may only use the land for recreation, stadium purposes and open space. The lease expires in 2038. The stadium and its many parking lots comprise 88 percent of the 190-acre campus, which currently has only 22.3 acres of green space and is largely hardscape.
The District recognizes the vast potential of this sprawling campus in the heart of the city to provide significant value to residents while also strengthening the local economy and neighborhood. The current lease and its accompanying restrictions have limited the District's ability to make full use of this land, including collecting tax revenue. The limited number of years remaining on the current lease have also complicated the District's ability to plan for the long-term development of this site and attract private investment.
The District has worked hard to identify creative utilization options for the property despite the uncertainty surrounding long-term control of the land. In August of last year, the District began work on its efforts to redevelop one of the site's many parking lots into multipurpose playing fields as part of a larger recreation complex. The conveyance of the site will give the District the ability to consider more uses for this site including additional green space for public use, housing, commercial development and other enhancements that would benefit the surrounding neighborhood and the District as a whole.
This bill, at no cost to the federal government, would provide the District with the certainty that it needs to secure financing and proceed with long-term planning for this site. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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