TOP STORIES: Prince George's County votes to pass Sphere venue

And welcome in here at three o'clock. I'm Marina Morocco. Let's get you caught up on all the things happening across the DMV here in the newsroom. We are busy as the Prince George's County Council voted today on that proposed sphere at the National Harbor. They are moving forward on plans for the venue. That proposed $1.4 billion project would feature a 6,000 seat venue with immersive displays and special effects similar to what we know as the Sphere in Las Vegas. County leaders say it could bring thousands of jobs, millions in tax revenue, but the plan also raising questions about public finance. financing traffic, protections for construction workers. WTOP reporter John Doan has been following this and has the very latest with more on this vote here. Where do things stand right now after the vote to pass? Well, it's a done deal. It's going to happen. They're starting to plan groundbreaking ceremonies at this point. It passed 8-0 today. Pretty anticlimactic after all the drama and the tension in the negotiations that we saw a few weeks ago. But at this point, everything is good to go, and they plan to get moving on this. And this was foreseeable, right? I mean, we talked about it, anticipating that, yes, the council would debate the matters at hand, especially with the labor unions that were looking to push back a bit. But regardless, this is a huge project, the tax revenue that it's going to bring into the county. What does the timeline look like starting from today? Well, starting from today, like I said, they're hoping to get a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled soon. All the negotiation, all the drama that happened a few weeks ago at this point today was pretty anticlimactic. It was a quick vote. They had a package of bills related to this project that they got through. All of them passed on an 8-0 measure. Three of the council members just sort of walked away so they didn't have to vote for or against it. And now they start planning the groundbreaking ceremony. I had somebody tell me they hope to get that scheduled sometime soon. And then if you want to look long term, like their ideal hope is that this thing is open for business and putting on shows in early 2030. Wow. And that would be also similar to the year that they wanted the RFK Stadium site here for the Commanders to happen. So a lot of projects happening, expected to bring in massive revenue on the tax front here for Prince George's County. You look at where it's located next to MGM National Harbor, obviously across from Virginia here. Traffic is a huge point of contention, but also the contentious back and forth with the labor unions guaranteeing those jobs for construction. Where do those talks stand right now? So there are what they call labor peace agreements in this deal. They may have some target goals in terms of how much union, how much minority representation will have in terms of the business share of the subcontracts going on with this. So it wasn't everything that some of the very staunch labor backers on the council were hoping to get. But it does have a lot And the point was made throughout this process Both from the county executive's office And from those who were representing the sphere here That they do hire a lot of union labor For these projects They're not union averse In the grand scheme of things They just don't want to be bound by agreements They don't have to be bound by That might drive up costs You're going to see a lot of union labor On this particular project It's not, again, the ideal project for a lot of the members of the council that might have wanted something a little bit stronger. But there are some protections. There are some goals and some targets here. There's a community benefits agreement that will impact residents who live within a few miles of this venue. So there is still a lot here for them. It's just not the perfect legislation that they were hoping for. All right. We talked about the annual projections and tax revenue, roughly $60 million a year. That's obviously not guaranteed. It's a projected forecast. But regardless, that's a pretty penny for the county here. 6,000 seats you look at the revenue you look at traffic congestion where does this stand here is like making it the place where people want to go but at the same time the taxpayer and especially those people that are there in Oxon Hill being amenable to the fact that they're going to be getting a lot of traffic where they're standing yeah that's been a concern that they've had for a while now i've been hearing about that for months people worried about the traffic the noise the light pollution that could come from that venue all that's going to have to be sort of taken into account as the development of this moves forward but you know we are talking about it's right next to what is a resort destination already between MGM and Gaylord it is right along the beltway right there so and you know there's still talk of trying to make Metro happen at National Harbor as well extending the Blue Line from there I mean obviously that would be massively expensive and difficult to do and certainly it would take way longer than 2030 for that to happen But there's all this talk and at least an effort to address some of those concerns right now. Will it happen? You know, I think the residents would love to see that. But, you know, they are right next to what has become a major destination in the county right now. It's a major economic driver. They're expecting tens of millions of dollars in property tax, sales tax and amusement tax coming from this venue right now. and the county does for its part to keep the burden off of residential property taxes which is where a lot of the revenue the county gets right now comes from expanding opportunities like this expanding business opportunities like this commercial opportunities like this is something they have to do and that's what the county executive maintained throughout this process that's what she said today and that's what others on the council have said as well which is why we're where we are at this point right now in terms of getting this passed especially as we're nearing the end of that lease for Northwest Stadium, especially as data centers have become public enemy number one. You've got to find that tax revenue somewhere else. And that is where the county is looking at. John, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for the breakdown. Happy to be here, guys. Topic number two here, a legal roadblock could complicate Robert White's path to Congress. The D.C. council member and Democratic nominee for the district's non-voting delegate seat may have to resign from his current job before Election Day. And that's because a little-known law from the 1970s bars the delegate from holding another paid public office on Election Day. Joining us now is CityCast DC reporter Ben Bratch. And Ben, what's he exploring whether the law can be changed? I suppose in the anticipation that maybe he doesn't win, but this could be tight. What's the latest? The latest is we don't know, which is not always satisfying, but is definitely the case. It's being figured out right now. it's a very fluid situation whether or not he needs to resign before election day a week from today. How tight is his race right now and that they would be uncomfortable giving up his seat on the council? Him becoming the D.C. delegate there's no drama there but we we still have a possibility of a tie vote on some things that are before the council it's the end of a legislative period so there's a lot of bills that are coming through that are pretty important. Okay so that seems to be a more of the issue. You know, Kenny McDuffie, before he ran for that Democratic primary seat for mayor, he had to give up his seat. And again, these laws, they make it very clear. Is there any legal way around this? That is what Councilmember White's staff are looking into right now. I haven't heard an argument put forward yet. I also know that He told our friends at the Washington Sun that he is not going to jeopardize going into Congress. So that, you know, that's where his priority is. OK, that seems like he would give up the seat if need be. Ben, we'll see if there's a workaround and I'm sure you'll have more on that. CityCast DC reporter, we appreciate it. Topic number three here, a new Washington Post visual investigation raising questions about the impact of President Trump's proposed 250 foot arch on the nation's capital. The analysis finding that structure could cast a shadow over Arlington National Cemetery on 284 days of the year. reaching thousands of graves and at times even the JFK Memorial and the Eternal Flame joining us for uh Jared, let's talk about this because 284 days I mean you could arguably say that's most of the year what have your findings brought you to show because I know a lot of this is visual to demonstrate just what this would look like we found that uh yes so 284 days in the morning the shadow of the arch will cast a shadow over Arlington Cemetery and it will cover over 75,000 graves in the process of that in addition to Kennedy's grave and the Eternal Flame it will also cover Supreme Court justices such as Rehnquist and RBG in addition to the women's Memorial within Arlington. All right, we're seeing some of those visuals and the projection. Obviously, this kind of takes you through the year and the different what the sun would be at different heights depending on the time of year, everything from January through the end of it. And this gives you a better scope. You want to walk us through this? Absolutely. So what we're looking at right now is in the evening. So as the season turns to fall and into winter, what we observed in our sun simulation model was that the shadow cast actually begins to hit the monuments on the D.C. side of the arch, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. Bearing in mind that the shadow from the arch hits the Kennedy Memorial in the morning, On 110 days of the year, the shadow would touch one of the monuments to two of America's assassinated presidents. And obviously, you've got veterans and preservationists arguing not just about the shadows, but how this would interrupt the historic sight line that connects to the cemetery. However, the Department of Interior is disputing what The Washington Post is reporting and the simulation, if you want to call it that. Yes, they sent us some copies, some pages of their own studies although they were limited in the scope. They sent us main hours primarily after 8 a.m. when the cemetery is open to the public. Our simulation, however, ran this simulation for every single hour of daylight for 365 days of the year. Is there a middle ground? Would there be, call it a compromise, lowering the 250 feet to something? And obviously the significance of 250, I think we could all understand that. But is there somewhere where potentially the government would say, OK, we'll lower this arch as to not cast this shadow? Has that been discussed? Has a compromise even been on the table? I can't speak to the internal deliberations of the design, but I can speak to the impact of the extraordinary height of 250 feet and how that interacts with the sun. Washington, D.C. is not a particularly tall city. Famously, its tallest monument is the Washington Monument. And as such, a monument, an arch as proposed to be this high, is capable of having extraordinary shadow impacts on the city, as we have uncovered in this analysis. How tall is the Washington Monument, for reference? At least—that's a good question, a good pop quiz. I believe it is at least double the height of the arch. arch all right i'm doing a quick search here to see so that we can uh okay 555 feet uh inches tall there so uh 555 feet so it would be half the size yep you got it all right jared obviously a point of contention here and much conversation as we look to see how the arch proceeds and whether in fact this is a go-ahead and it seems as though the administration is certainly pushing through as it is we appreciate that thank you for your visual forensics thank you marina stay with us here on the DMV Zone. We'll be right back.