Trump’s planned DC arch faces new lawsuit

A Virginia county governing board filed the suit, claiming the planning for the monument near DC was rushed.

Local authorities in Arlington, Virginia, have sued the United States Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, seeking to block President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch.

The ۲۵۰-foot (۷۶-metre) arch project could win approval as early as next month. It is modelled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and is planned to be built near Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac River from Washington.

The Arlington County governing board said in its lawsuit on Thursday that the project within a busy traffic corridor will cause “significant harm” to its residents and likely require changes to nearby flight paths. It is the first governmental body to take legal action against Trump’s planned monument.

Lawyers argue that the National Park Service failed to conduct a thorough review and that the arch will harm public safety by clogging thoroughfares needed for emergency transport services.

“The National Park Service, the agency responsible for projects on national park land such as Memorial Circle, is proceeding full speed towards ground-disturbing construction,” the lawsuit said. “Although the agency has claimed that a final decision to construct the Arch has not yet been made and purports to be engaged in a routine decisional process, that rushed process appears to be a pretext designed to shore up justifications for building the Arch in accordance with the President’s repeated marching orders.”

The lawsuit asks that “the agency’s feverish pace towards construction of the arch” be halted to ensure that the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act be followed and proper analysis and testing be done.

“The Arlington County Board has filed this lawsuit because our community has the most to lose from this egregious and unlawful proposed project,” Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said in a statement. He added that the county has acted in good faith in the review process, pointing out the “severe, unique and wide-ranging negative impacts” the project will have on the county and its residents, only to see them ignored.

The Interior Department emailed a short statement: “The Department continues to follow all laws and regulations.” The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The proposed arch would be within the airport’s main approach and departure corridors. The Federal Aviation Administration’s safety determination requires the arch to be marked with a flame ⁠⁠⁠⁠atop the structure and floodlight projectors to make it noticeable for pilots. Some aviation experts have raised safety concerns given its proximity to the airport’s main approach and departure corridor.

The FAA dropped an earlier requirement for red obstruction lights, which it generally mandates on buildings more than ۲۰۰ feet (۶۱ metres) tall near airports, such as the nearby ۱۶۹-metre (۵۵۴-foot) Washington Monument.

The arch is part of Trump’s broader push to remake Washington, including renovating ⁠⁠⁠⁠the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, redeveloping a golf course in East Potomac Park and adding his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Preservationists say the projects would alter some of the capital’s most prominent historic landmarks.

Though the arch has received early approval from the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were all tapped by Trump, a group of three veterans and an architectural historian sued in federal court in Washington, DC, saying the project needs approval by Congress. The judge in that lawsuit said the administration must give the court ۴۸ hours before undertaking any activities related to, or in preparation for, construction of the arch.

Last month, Trump said he would convert the arch into a military complex capable of deploying drones and positioning snipers.