Everyone stopped to look up as a Stealth Bomber, escorted by four Raptor fighter jets, flew over the Fields at RFK just before noon Thursday, as Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) unveiled the final RFK Campus Master Plan.
The flyover marked the conclusion of a White House ceremony for Chinese President Xi Jinping, not a celebration of Bowser’s victory. But to the mayor, it may have felt apt.
The document brings the District closer to a goal she has pursued since her first inaugural address: bringing Washington’s football team home and building a neighborhood around it. She called the 180-acre redevelopment the largest economic development project in District history. Bowser, who is leaving office at year’s end, must also measure that promise against a deadline: a new Commanders stadium by the 2030 NFL season.
“We would not deliver just the status quo, and the status quo is a stadium surrounded by asphalt parking lots,” she said. The plan instead sets a framework for housing, jobs, parks, recreation, shops and access to the Anacostia River around the stadium. Transmitted to the DC Council Sept. 24, it still awaits adoption and zoning.
The 188-page plan divides the site into six districts: four for mixed-use development and two principally for parks and recreation. It calls for 5,500 to 6,500 homes, at least 30 percent affordable, and devotes at least 30 percent of the site to parks and open space. Design guidelines cover building heights, streets and the riverfront. A Sportsplex, athletic fields, waterfront trail and plazas would serve visitors on game days and other days.
Office of Planning (OP) Director Anita Cozart said more than 3,000 comments came in over the summer. Compared with the June draft, the final plan provides more detail on the proposed Gold Line bus rapid transit route, Stadium-Armory Metro expansion, roads needed by opening day and pedestrian and bicycle connections across the river. The city says it also redesigned Kingman Commons around utility lines and added park space.
On The First Game Day
Asked what fans would find when the stadium opens, RFK project director Brian Hanlon pointed to the stadium and two parking garages. Some development in the Plaza District, across from the DC Armory, might be underway or open, he said, but he could not predict how much.
The plan’s “Day One” section calls for team offices, a public plaza, garage and temporary surface parking by the expected 2030 opening. A map identifies interim surface lots. It also places a District-delivered Sportsplex in the early phase, although perhaps not completed in time for the first game. Housing and businesses in the remaining districts would follow. The Commanders face milestones for the Plaza and Riverfront districts, but Bowser said officials cannot yet say when the entire campus will be complete.
Yes, There Was Talk of Parking
The plan assigns about 6,000 spaces to two aboveground garages: roughly 3,500 north of the stadium and 2,500 to the south. They would sit along roads intended to keep event traffic out of nearby neighborhoods. Later mixed-use buildings could include belowground parking. Some Kingman Park neighbors object to the garages’ loss of green space and ask why stadium parking cannot go underground. Bowser cited cost and said it was never contemplated. Early discussions included three garages, she said, and a third might eventually be needed.
Fan Obbie English asked what happens to tailgating when surface lots give way to garages. “As you know, it is a bit of a cultural and I want to say camaraderie aspect to the fan base here in DC,” English told the Mayor. Bowser deferred to the Commanders, calling them the “experts,” but said the team was looking for a creative way to recreate the tradition. The final plan does identify one possibility: an open space at the western edge of the Recreation District, near the pedestrian tunnel and garage, “could provide new places to tailgate.” So far, however, that remains a conceptual suggestion rather than a final decision.
Getting There –and Back
The plan acknowledges a capacity problem. WMATA has determined the existing Stadium-Armory station cannot handle event-day demand without improvements. It calls for larger mezzanines, more escalators and elevators and an expanded north entrance by opening day. The District has allocated $300 million for the station work, which is to be complete by 2030.
On the Gold Line, the plan specifies dedicated bus rapit transit (BRT) bia center-running lanes on H Street and Benning Road NE, linking Union Station to a proposed campus transit plaza north of C Street NE. The precise station location needs further study. Construction funding for the line and campus station has not been secured.
The Hill Rag asked Bowser what would happen if the Gold Line were not ready by opening day. “It will be,” Bowser said. Pressed for a backup plan, she said she would still be watching progress as “taxpayer number one.” She described the line as one part of a system that includes micromobility and bike lanes, but offered no specific fallback.
WMATA hopes to have the project ready for funding approval and construction by spring 2027, with groundbreaking scheduled for summer 2028 and service beginning in summer 2030. The plan calls for a traffic operations and parking plan for major events. An environmental review and traffic analysis will inform final road designs.
Residents pressed officials on affordability and protections for existing neighbors. Ward 7 Councilmember Wendell Felder (D) said a community benefits package adds $60 million to the Commanders’ $50 million contribution and includes measures to help longtime residents stay. Bowser cited existing senior property-tax protections. The plan acknowledges the risk of displacement as rents and property values rise. It recommends the city monitor that risk and distribute afforable homes across the campus, calling for pricing at 40 percent AMI for every residence built after a district reaches 700 units.
The DC Armory is within the plan’s study area but outside the RFK land transfer. The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved transfer of administrative jurisdiction over its 9.4-acre site Sept. 3; Events DC already controls the building. The District is considering possible uses if the National Guard relocates. The plan suggests civic, recreational or commercial uses and calls for more study of the Armory’s historic eligibility. Bowser said the site entered the discussion late, saying uses should align with the rest of the campus, but offered no decision on its future.
What Next
The Council’s Committee of the Whole will hold a hearing Sept. 30 at 10 a.m.; Felder’s office plans a campus walkthrough at 5 p.m. Officials hope the Council will adopt the plan by year’s end. Changes to the city’s Future Land Use Map would also be needed before mixed-use development can be zoned. OP would then submit zoning text and map amendments to turn the framework into rules governing land use, heights and density across the wider site. Environmental review, infrastructure design and contract solicitations will continue in parallel.
Hanlon said utility relocation is underway, old stadium foundation pieces will be removed, and bidding will pick up in November and December ahead of a spring groundbreaking for the new foundation. “Everyone’s behavior is bending around the gravity of this project,” he said of District cooperation among agencies and utilities. Calling it “the most transformative project in the history of our city since its founding,” he said its significance extends beyond the campus itself.
“We’re harnessing that to make sure that part of the legacy of this project changes the way things happen here in the city,” Hanlon said.
If that turns out to be true, a new 180- acre neighborhood centered around an NFL stadium might not be Bowser’s greatest legacy after all.
Follow RFK development at ourrfk.com. See the Master Plan here. Sign up to testify at the DC Council COW Hearing or get more information on how to attend virtually or in-person at https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Hearings/hearings/2404 Register for Felder’s Sept. 30 RFK walk-through on Eventbrite.
