Nicole Raz
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) — The DC Council is accepting testimony until the end of the year on the proposed basketball facility at the former St. Elizabeths Hospital east of the river. The expected cost of the facility is $55 million. As proposed, taxpayers will be fully responsible for $23 million to build the facility, and partially responsible for another $27 million via Events DC, which is funded with hotel and restaurant taxes.
“My concern is the funding,” says Chairperson for the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for Ward8C Mary Cuthbert. “If you don’t spend it on me, you’re going to spend it on somebody else. We deserve to have that facility on the East campus. We’ve been waiting for years; we’ve been neglected, rejected on anything that was going to have some type of quality development in Ward 8.”
Ward 8 Resident Kymone Freeman supports the project but he wants the Council to ensure residents won’t be pushed out.
“We’re looking to have a property tax freeze for existing businesses and home owners, we’re looking to have some sort of agreement for guaranteed employment for all jobs that are created in the area for people who are living in the area, we are looking for some sort of aggressive rent control,” he said. “These are things that can be done to make sure that as the development comes in, as the people come in, that the rates don’t go up and above the affordability of the people that live there.”
There are mixed feelings on the DC Council about spending tax dollars on the facility.
“If I had to choose, right now, between a $50 million practice facility for the MBA, and using that money to make sure DC residents can afford to live in this city,” then Councilmember Elissa Silverman says it wouldn’t be the stadium.
But that’s a mistake, says Councilmember Jack Evans.
“This is a really, really [great] opportunity for the District of Columbia and for the residents east of the river to share in the economic opportunities and development that is taking place in this city,” Evans said.
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