It is reassuring to learn that the Interior Department is finally concerned about controlling security-threatening heights of buildings overlooking the White House {"Lafayette Park: Not the Place for a 7-Foot Igloo," Feb. 2} .

Now that U.S. Park Police have arrested two harmless citizens, maybe someone will ask the judge why not one of the thousands of federal law enforcement officials in the nation's capital took any action to halt construction of Metropolitan Square. Interior's own solicitors said the building's height was 30 feet over the legal limit, and the U.S. Secret Service in letters to federal officials said that the height would pose a "permanent and uncontrollable security threat to the president, his family and visiting heads of state."

KATHRYN A. ECKLES, Washington