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Thursday, December 13, 2018

Hogan Aide Defends Stadium Maneuver as Criticism Mounts

(Click on the image for Bruce DePuyt's Maryland Matters report)
  • A spokeswoman for Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) said he has met with Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder at least twice to discuss Oxon Cove, a 300-acre parcel just inside the Capital Beltway near MGM National Harbor, and currently the site of a park and farming museum.
    “This is a major economic development project for the state,” said Amelia Chasse, Hogan’s communications director. “We think it’s a terrific site.”
  • “I feel pissed off — and you can print it that way,” said state Sen.-elect Obie Patterson (D), who represented the Oxon Hill area on the County Council for eight years. “I’m sitting here — I’ve been in this area, in this county, since 1971. And I know Gov. Hogan is the governor, but we have a responsibility, too.”
  • State Del. Jay Walker (D), who also represents the area, said a new stadium would be a burden on the community.
    “With transportation issues that we’re still trying to get fixed to this day, you almost have to say ‘what’s the transportation plan?’” Walker said.
  • Community activist Sarah Cavett, a former member of the Prince George’s County planning board member, agrees. “If you’re talking a domed stadium, surface parking, you’re right on the [Potomac] River, there would be so much impervious surface, I think that would have a terrible deteriorating effect on the Potomac, on our entire area.”
    “Do I think it’s the best place for stadium?” Cavett added. “No, I don’t.”
  • Monique Anderson-Walker (D), who succeeded Patterson on the County Council last week, remembers playing at Oxon Cove as a child.
    “I think it’s a great location for development,” she said. “I don’t know if a stadium alone is the way to go. I’d like to see diversified uses there, mixed uses. But that’s something that the people would have to determine that they want. The people should definitely have a say in how it happens and what they need.”