D.C.’s Height Limits: Are You Ready for Some Football?

From a recent report by Hannah Hess: “Wooing Washington’s National Football League franchise back to the city would be easier if D.C. would lift its building height limits, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.” Issa’s appeal, however, isn’t about the height of the football stadium, but the economic capacity of a neighborhood around a potential pro sports stadium.

“Go to many of the new stadiums that have been built,” Rep. Issa (the House Oversight and Government Reform chairman) said recently. “They’re often built with buildings that are part of the plan.”

According to Hess, “Issa’s home state provides one example. In California, construction of San Diego’s Petco Park, home to Major League Baseball’s Padres, led to more than $2 billion in new investment in the surrounding neighborhood, including the luxurious Omni Hotel connected to the stadium via a suspension sky bridge.”

The appeal by Rep. Issa might be considered a bit of a “Statue of Liberty” play. “D.C. officials have expressed plenty of interest in luring the area football team back inside city limits with new development — but they seem to have no love for new vertical growth.”