The National Capital Planning Commission voted to approve President Trump’s ballroom design despite a public comment period that requested changes to the project, including reducing the structure’s size.
Their decision may now be subject to a lawsuit, according to a public advocacy group weighing a legal challenge.
Eight commissioners voted to approve the project. Two commissioners voted present and one, a Democrat, voted no. A final commissioner was absent.
Critics claim the NCPC rushed the process but Chairman Will Scharf, who also serves as Trump’s staff secretary, defended the commission’s work, pointing to the review process and public comment period, arguing the commission could have simply approved the project without any input from the public.
“Everyone who wanted to be heard on this project was heard,” he said, adding he read every public comment submitted. “That has not been a simple or quick task, but as chairman I thought it was my duty.”
Scharf went on a 20-minute defense of the commission and the president’s plan to build the 90,000-square-foot entertaining space, which is the biggest change to the White House in 70 years.
He gave a long history of changes made to the original structure, including the addition of the West Wing and the original East Wing.
“My core point is that the White House is ever changing, ever evolving to meet the programmatic needs of an ever-changing and evolving United States presidency. And any argument that relies on the idea that the White House is unchangeable, or should be unchangeable, flies in the face of the very history of the structure that they claim they are trying to protect,” he said.
“I believe that, in time, this ballroom will be considered every bit of a national treasure as the other key components of the White House,” Scharf noted.
A federal court recently ordered construction halted because of a lawsuit but Scharf said that decision did not apply to the commission’s work and went forward with the vote.
The ballroom, which will seat 1,000 people, is scheduled to be completed shortly before the end of Trump’s term and Trump will get very little use out of it, Scharf noted.
“If the current construction timeline holds as I expect it will, President Trump will get very limited use of this structure before the end of his term, and that the real beneficiaries will be future presidents of all political stripes and dispositions and their administrations, as well as, of course, the American system,” he said.
Commissioner James Blair, who serves as deputy White House chief of staff, pointed to the many professionals who worked on the design of the project, including the president himself.
“The president, who obviously has had a hand in this design, is a builder himself, and he, too, has won numerous architecture designs and architecture awards for buildings he has built over the years,” Blair said.
“The purpose of the ballroom really blends the two things. It blends great architecture with great hospitality, which is something the president cares deeply about, because it represents the American people. That’s what the White House does. It’s not his house. He’s the current occupant, but it is the American people’s house, and he feels that way,” he added.
But one commissioner had objections.
“It’s just too large,” Commissioner Phil Mendelson, a Democrat, said. He also pointed to other improvements the president wants to enact at the White House, such as a new visitors’ center. “We should be looking at all of this at one time, not just piecemeal.”
He was the lone “no” vote.
Before approving the ballroom project, the Commission voted to amend the proposal to include updates to the design, which included the removal of some outdoor staircases.
The commission’s vote now faces a lawsuit partially because of those design changes.
Jon Golinger of Public Citizen, an advocacy group, said ahead of the meeting that his group would likely file a lawsuit if the ballroom was approved based on two factors: the law that created the commission requires the president’s appointees to have planning experience in regional or city planning, which Public Citizen claims Trump’s appointees don’t have. Trump appointed his staff secretary and deputy chief of staff to the board.
The other factor is that when Trump showed an updated drawing of the ballroom to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, changes to the plan – including the removal of an outside staircase – were visible. Public Citizen argues the changes mean the planning commission must reopen the 30-day public comment period since the previous comment period was on a design that is no longer in use.
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“They voted to approve a project that wasn’t actually calendared today. They’re putting themselves in legal jeopardy that way,” Golinger said.
But Scharf brushed aside concerns about the evolving design, which removed stairs adjacent to the South Portico of the proposed ballroom, and also modified the southwest corner stair to include a switchback, which is a U-shaped staircase.
“Overall, the layout other than those two modifications is not substantially different than previously considered,” Scharf said. “And I will say that the proposed revisions actually do reflect a lot of the feedback that the project applicants heard from NCPC.”
Trump started demolition on the East Wing in October with little public warning. His project, being paid for by private donations, is now estimated to cost $400 million.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued, asking for a halt in construction. The judge agreed but said that his order would take effect in two weeks and that construction related to security would be allowed.
Trump is appealing the decision and told reporters that construction will continue, pointing out the ballroom does include security elements, including an underground military complex and a hospital.
The president, reading from the ruling, stated he is allowed to ensure the “safety and security” of the building and the grounds.
“That’s what we’re doing, because everything’s bulletproof glass,” Trump said recently. “It’s bulletproof and it’s ballistic proof. It’s very thick. It’s like that, and it’s going 45 feet high, and every window is covered, every door is covered, the roof is drone proof. We have secure air handling systems. You know, bad things happen in the air.”
Based on that, he said construction can continue.
“We have all of these things. So that’s called, I’m allowed to continue building as necessary. So think of that for the safety of the President. So we have all these things so on that we’re okay,” he said.
