A federal judge has temporarily blocked the closure of Washington DC’s historic East Potomac Park and its golf course, halting plans by the Trump administration to redevelop the site into a championship venue.
US District Judge Ana Reyes ruled that the park and course could not be shut on Sunday, 15 November. However, she said the administration was not required to actively manage either site while her order remains in force until 28 November.
The case was brought by a District of Columbia preservation group and two local golfers, who argued that the closure formed part of a plan to replace the public course with a new design by golf architect Tom Fazio.
Judge Reyes said the administration’s stated reasons for shutting East Potomac Park appeared to have been developed after the decision had already been made. She wrote that the Government “reverse-engineers additional justifications for the Park’s closure” while continuing to say it was acting on the President’s direction.
The park includes the golf course, a road, a playground and other recreational areas. The administration had argued that the entire site needed to be closed because of a deteriorating sea wall, safety concerns at the course and the expected end of the National Links Trust’s role operating it.
Lawyers for the challengers said those circumstances had effectively been manufactured to justify the closure. Judge Reyes questioned why the park had not been shut immediately if the repairs were an emergency, noting that thousands of runners had passed through it during the Marine Corps Marathon the previous month.
East Potomac Park closure blocked
President Trump announced last month that the course would close on 15 November, with a renovated “world-class, championship course” expected to open in about 15 months.
But during a court hearing on Friday, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said he “would be shocked to learn there is a contract” with Mr Fazio or any related organisation finalising the proposed design or construction plans.
The Justice Department said the park’s closure would not necessarily mean that renovation work would begin immediately. The National Park Service still needs to complete legal reviews under federal environmental and historic preservation laws, while the Commission of Fine Arts and National Capital Planning Commission must conduct their own assessments.
The National Capital Planning Commission is due to consider the proposed course at a meeting on 3 December. The design would occupy the whole of East Potomac Park, removing the existing road around the peninsula and recreational space at its southern end.
The dispute intensified after the National Park Service told the court it planned to remove trees from the course. More than 500 trees were subsequently cut down over one weekend, prompting Judge Reyes to prohibit further felling and require the Justice Department to notify her about planned actions at the site.
A proposal submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts said a replacement sea wall would cost more than 300 million dollars and take at least two and a half years to complete. The National Park Service has said there is currently no plan in place to carry out the work, and the administration separately announced that it was seeking a contract for repairs to sea wall and shoreline infrastructure.
Catherine Carroll, senior legal adviser at Democracy Forward, which represents the challengers, welcomed the ruling. She said the closure would have removed “a treasured park that could never be replaced”.
Judge Reyes is also considering an inquiry into whether senior officials at the Interior Department, Justice Department and National Park Service misrepresented facts in court documents or hearings. She has said she intends to appoint Jessie Liu, a former US attorney in Washington DC, to lead the investigation; the Justice Department opposes the appointment of a special master.
