Within an hour of D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson’s announcement of an updated deal with the Washington Commanders to redevelop the RFK Stadium site, proponents of the plan rallied with Mayor Muriel Bowser, complete with signs and pom-poms.
But not everyone’s cheerleading the agreement.
Kris Furnish, who is leading a ballot initiative Homes Not Stadiums, told WTOP that despite plans that include an agreement by the Commanders to provide $50 million in community benefits, her group remains opposed to the plan.
“Our messaging is very clear,” she said. The District, “needs to put housing first. This land needs to develop deeply affordable housing.”
As laid out in the deal, there’s a plan for 6,000 housing units, with 1,800 of those to be designated as affordable housing. But Furnish said, “If we really focused on affordable housing, we could get thousands of more units than what the deal is proposing. And that’s truly what people need in the District.”
Furnish said the needs of the most vulnerable residents are often left out of the drive to develop stadiums and the hoped-for revenues sports franchises are expected to generate.
“All across America, where you’re seeing stadiums being built, and then whatever’s developed around the stadium is just not affordable for low-income people to survive,” she said.
She pointed to Nationals Park and the development at the Navy Yard: “None of those apartments are affordable. They’re high-rise, they’re luxury apartments that people like we would never be able to afford.”
The ballot initiative that Homes Not Stadiums is seeking to get on the ballot in D.C. would strip the mayor from the authority to make stadium deals involving taxpayer money or public land.
Furnish said the group has a hearing with the Board of Elections on Aug. 8, and added that the group is trying to make sure the ballot initiative passes legal muster.
If denied, “We might have to consider taking this to court,” she said.
A public hearing on the stadium deal will be held before the D.C. Council on July 29. As of Friday, 522 witnesses had signed up to speak on the issue.
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