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President's house eyed for major renovation
By Walden Siew
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
 he National Park Service wants $300 million to renovate the White House and its grounds, including two underground parking garages that would eliminate street-level parking around the mansion, a new recreation room and more closet space for the first family.
A new visitors center would have moving sidewalks to take tour groups to the nation's most famous address. A two-story, 290-vehicle parking garage under Pennsylvania Avenue and an 850-car garage under the Ellipse would help clear surrounding congestion, but would be reserved for White House staffers.
The additions would come over the next 20 years and be financed with a mix of budget dollars and private donations.
The Park Service plan does not address the future of Pennsylvania Avenue NW in front of the White House, which has been closed to vehicular traffic since 1995, but E Street NW would remain one-way immediately south of the White House.
The Park Service plan is the first major redesign since George Washington selected the site in 1791.
"After two centuries of use, it is the first comprehensive plan for the White House," Park Service Director Robert G. Stanton said yesterday at the White House visitors center. "These historic buildings and landscapes must be able to effectively meet the demands of the 21st-century presidency."
The draft design plan will be available to the public until March 11, when the Park Service will begin writing a final design report for the White House and proposed "President's Park" improvements, which will have a 30-day period for public review.
Congress and 10 other agencies, including the National Capital Planning Commission and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, have oversight roles, but the plan must be approved by Mr. Stanton.
The final design for the closed Pennsylvania Avenue and the congested E Street NW are not yet determined and face a number of hurdles.
After the Oklahoma City bombing, authorities closed Pennsylvania Avenue on May 20, 1995, to protect the White House. That action diverted about 26,000 cars a day to alternate routes -- E Street and Constitution Avenue got the heaviest traffic -- which worsened noise, congestion and pollution problems.
The National Capital Planning Commission has tabled a decision to turn Pennsylvania Avenue into a pedestrian park until the Treasury Department conducts an environmental impact study.
"That's the impasse, it's between the National Capital Planning Commission and Treasury," said Ann Smith, the Park Service's liaison to the White House for the project.
The plan also calls for $5 million in improvements for E Street NW, now a one-way street eastbound. It would remain a two-lane eastbound street with the access lane for White House traffic, which exists now, but workers would widen the street, repave it and install a landscaped island to separate general and restricted-access traffic.
"You've got to be able to uncork downtown. ... That's why we have the interim goals with our long-term goals," Ms. Smith said.
In April, Federal Highway Administration officials announced a $1.5 million plan to broaden E Street NW near the White House and turn it into a two-way road, which still will be considered under the design plan, Ms. Smith said.
The National Park Service's plan would move vendors now working along 15th and 17th streets bordering the Ellipse, said Jim McDaniel, a Park Service spokesman.
About 1.2 million visitors tour the White House annually. Visitors yesterday said they approved of the idea of removing parked cars from the street.
"I think it's great. I find that the cars all around there are very unattractive," said Jeannette Hamilton, 48, a secretary from Vancouver, British Columbia. "Parks anywhere are an enhancement."
Twenty years from now the National Park Service envisions moving walkways from the visitors center to the executive mansion, also a $5.1 million storage area and a $2.3 million recreation room inside the White House, which Ms. Smith called "a relentlessly formal house."
The increased space is necessary because the movements of the first family are increasingly restrained due to increased security, she said.
Remote storage areas now in use require too many deliveries, which pose a greater security risk.
The proposed "President's Park" would include markers that provide visitors information about the grounds.
The new visitors center would include interactive displays and historical photographs and pictures.
Renovation would include more space for news media, now in cramped quarters.
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