Overview
- Internal Park Service records obtained by reporters show agency staff repeatedly raised legal, ethical and procedural objections as leadership advanced a plan to lease roughly 40 acres that include the Rock Creek Tennis Center.
- Draft lease documents record explicit staff objections, with officials writing that the park “vehemently disagrees with these lease boundaries” and that the proposal did not meet legal requirements for parkland use.
- Emails show Park Service officials engaged in pre-bid contact with Mark Ein, the businessman behind the DC Open, and that one Interior official proposed a lease footprint larger than what Ein appeared to seek.
- Agency scientists warned the larger footprint would include three of seven known pools for the federally protected Hays Spring amphipod, threatening habitat and more than $1 million in prior protections.
- Months after the administration sought to complete a deal, no lease has been announced, the Interior says the process followed the law, and the unresolved issues increase the odds of outside scrutiny or legal challenges.