By Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project was approved by Washington planning authorities on Thursday, two days after a judge ruled work cannot proceed without Congress’ approval.
The National Capital Planning Commission, which is chaired by one of Trump’s former lawyers, deliberated and then voted to approve the “East Wing Modernization Project.”
The Republican president says the $400 million, 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom will be a privately financed defining addition to the White House and a lasting symbol of his presidency.
The ballroom is part of Trump’s broader push to reshape Washington’s monumental core, which also includes plans for a 250-foot (76-meter) arch and a multi-year renovation of the Kennedy Center performing arts complex. He has also ripped out and replaced the White House Rose Garden and added a wide array of gilding to the Oval Office.
“I believe that, in time, this ballroom will be considered every bit as much of a national treasure as the other key components of the White House,” said Will Scharf, who chairs the commission and is Trump’s former personal lawyer.
Scharf, who was appointed by Trump, said that many of the negative comments the commission had received on the project dealt with issues beyond its scope, including negative comments on the private funding of the ballroom, the demolition process and opinions about Trump.
‘JUST TOO LARGE’
Phil Mendelson, a member of the commission and chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, criticized the speed of the process, however, saying it was rushed.
“I think that we can have a ballroom. To me that’s not the issue,” he said. “It’s just too large. And if we can get the same program, but not as tall, not competing in height with the main structure, and a condensed footprint, we are better for that.”
Over a dozen protesters gathered outside the commission building ahead of the vote, holding signs that read, “Hands off the people’s house”, among other messages, and displaying a stack of boxes they said contained 35,000 comments from the public, with 97% of them against the project.
“The American people have weighed in on this project, and they hate it,” Jon Golinger, democracy advocate with Public Citizen, said as he criticized Trump over the project. “He needs to put the White House back the way the people gave it to him.”
He said a vote to approve the project could be legally vulnerable to challenge.
The commission is one of two federal bodies, along with the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, assigned a role in overseeing key D.C.-area building projects.
The Justice Department appealed Tuesday’s ruling that the president cannot construct his planned ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing without approval from Congress.
The federal judge in the case granted a request for a preliminary injunction by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization that brought a lawsuit alleging Trump exceeded his authority when he razed the historic East Wing and launched construction on the new building.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Additional reporting by Greg Savoy; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
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