A bombshell from Tuesday's Post: "Several D.C. Council members were negotiating late yesterday to introduce emergency legislation today that would revive a plan to build condominiums and parking garages near a new baseball stadium in Southeast Washington. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was leading the effort and had distributed a bill that seeks to alter the $611 million stadium cost cap approved by the council in March. The legislation would allow the city to spend money from the sale of development rights on stadium land to pay for the parking garages." As an emergency bill it would require 9 of 13 council votes, and CFO Gandhi has already said he has "grave concerns". And the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission would be stripped of control of the garages land, handing them over to the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and allowing them to negotiate with the Lerners. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride continues....

Today's Examiner has "Mayor Williams says parking deal not dead", with not much that's new, but these lines advance the story a tad: " 'We've got to show that development's under way very, very quickly, but at the same time we have to satisfy the need for parking,' Williams said. Williams said talks were ongoing Monday between multiple parties. If the deal does ultimately collapse, the mayor said, the city might have no choice but to build the standalone parking garages sought by Nationals owners, but vehemently opposed by the D.C. Zoning Commission." And the WashPost editorializes about the brouhaha in "Mayor Williams's Dead Deal."

Today's stadium links (posted without summaries, because watching everyone run around like chickens with their heads cut off, clutching their hearts with doom and gloom, has finally exceeded my Allowable Exasperation Level): DC Examiner has "Mayor: City Must Act Fast on Parking," and the Washington Times has "Stadium Parking Threatens Budget". I'd also remind everyone who is so terrified that if the garages site isn't developed immediately, the Ballpark District will be doomed to failure--it took, what, seven years for the Gallery Place project to be developed just north of the MCI/Verizon Center, and that seemed to turn out okay. The garages site is two blocks within a far larger area that is already well on it's way to being developed, the city is going to get plenty of tax revenue, if those two blocks take a few extra years to get figured out, I don't think the city will crumble. UPDATE, 9/23: A day later, here's the Post's latest parking story, "City's Plans for Stadium Now Focus on Parking." I'm not going to rehash all the garage arguments (you can read the article's rehash, including yet another misguided statement about how a lack of development on those two blocks "could delay the waterfront revival until well after the stadium opens"), but there's an interesting comment at the end: "Monument Vice President Russell Hines said his company would be willing to lease the garages [under the company's planned development one block north of the stadium site] to the city for ballpark parking in 2008 because the office buildings will not be completed until the next year. If the city's fee is high enough, Hines said, Monument might even be willing to delay construction of the offices. 'There may be a solution where we agree to delay completion of our buildings in order to provide parking until another parking solution is provided,' Hines said. 'There's no deal yet, but we're willing to talk.' "

From WTOP: "Herb Miller's Western Development Corporation Baseball Partners rejected a deal from the city to develop parking and retail at the new stadium for the Washington Nationals. The move puts the city at risk of default on the stadium agreement with the Lerner Family. That agreement calls for the city to provide 1,225 parking spaces at the site by opening day in April of 2008. If the District is unable to provide that number of spaces, the Lerners could sue the city for damages. [...] Those options include creating surface parking around the stadium as an interim fix until more permanent parking can be developed. The D.C. Zoning Board has ruled the parking cannot preclude other development on the site, such as retail. " It appears that what they're now arguing about is how much Miller gets compensated for the deal falling through. More as I get it (and perhaps the Post will give us some clarity, this seems a bit jumbled). UPDATE: Here is the WashPost story, which doesn't tell us much that we haven't already heard. The article is a bit overwrought when it says "The dissolution of the Miller project could have far-reaching consequences on the entire baseball experience and the city's planned revival of the waterfront." -- after all, there are millions of square feet of office, residential, and retail projects planned for around the stadium, whether the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness got built or not. Next step, trying to put 925 parking spaces on the northern edge of the stadium site by Opening Day 2008.

From Saturday's Post: "District government officials believe a plan to build condominiums and parking garages adjacent to a new baseball stadium in Southeast Washington is in danger of collapsing and have offered to buy out the developer for nearly $1 million." The short of it--the city has delivered a contract to Herb Miller for the project, but the contract would need approval from Lerners, which it most likely would not get. So the contract also has in it a $990,000 payment to Miller if the deal falls through (Miller is quoted later in the story as saying he's incurred $5.5 million in design and other costs on this project, at the city's request). Why $990k? Because any payment more than $1 million requires city council approval. So, what would happen? "If Miller's towers are not built, commission officials have said they would consider paving over the area to provide surface-level parking spots with the potential for future development. Another possibility would be to ask the D.C. Council for more money to build garages underground or aboveground, commission officials said." Miller has until Wednesday to sign the contract, so we should know the resolution on this before too much longer. Or, have I said that before?

From today's Post, word that negotiations between Herb Miller and the city on the Garages Wrapped with Development Goodness have "bogged down because of financing complications," and the city fears that his proposal will fall through and have "begun developing a plan that relies heavily on surface-level parking lots." It says that negotiations are to resume today--interesting timing of this story, then!--and that the main issues are whether the plan violates the $611 million stadium cost cap and who will pay for any overruns. The story says that if the deal falls through, "The sports commission has explored the possibility of paving over the five-acre plot north of the stadium to provide surface level lots for the scheduled opening of the stadium in April 2008. A temporary one-level garage might be included to reach the required number of parking spaces. Under that plan, additional development could be built in the future by Miller or another developer."

No news yet on the fate of the Herb Miller/Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness plan to solve the issue of parking at the new baseball stadium (despite the Sept. 1 date when the financing was supposed to be in place having now arrived), but the Post editorial page weighs in on the lonely plight of CEO Gandhi trying to make sure that the DC taxpayers' interests don't strike out.

A short blurb from Friday's Post: "D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi asked the city's attorney general yesterday to rule on the legality of a plan for a private developer to build a mix of parking garages, condominiums and shops adjacent to the new baseball stadium. In a two-page letter, Gandhi expressed concern that the plan would violate the $611 million stadium cost cap adopted by the D.C. Council and a ban on using the money the city would receive from development rights near the stadium to build the garages. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and other city officials are aiming to complete an agreement by Sept. 1 with developer Herbert S. Miller to build the garages and condos." (Boy, I've enjoyed these past few weeks without any news on this. But I'm guessing next week this'll be back with a vengeance. Blech.)

Today's Washington Times reports that DC mayoral candidate Michael Brown has vowed to "stop construction of the Washington Nationals' baseball stadium on South Capitol Street and instead would refurbish RFK Stadium for the team." He will apparently be holding a press conference this week to detail his plans. Additionally: "Mr. Brown acknowledged the apparent difficulties in gaining the approval of all interested parties for a new stadium deal but said he can do it. 'I didn't say it was easy, and there are a lot of different moving pieces.' " In other the-stadium-is-a-boondoggle highlights from the weekend, the WashTimes editorial board compares the financing for the new Yankee stadium to what DC "negotiated" to get the Nats to DC (i.e., stop pointing the gun at us, Bud, we'll give you everything you want, just so you'll finally put a team in one of the biggest markets in the country), but also uses it to once again castigate the Lerners for standing in the way of the city's desire to recoup some money by building the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness. In addition, local muckraking institution DC Watch has had much discussion from its readers over the past few weeks about the stadium and it's financing, and addresses it specifically in its current issue.

This is a little old at this point, but here's the prepared remarks of CFO Natwar Gandhi when he testified before the council's Committee on Economic Development on July 6 about his concerns with Herb Miller's proposal for the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness.