Washington panel set to consider Trump's ballroom project in March

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's White House ballroom project may get a blessing from Washington planning authorities as ‌soon as next month.

Trump razed the White House's East Wing in ‌October to make way for a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) addition that he says will be privately financed. ​The administration planned the neoclassical building's ribbon-cutting for summer 2028 as part of the most extensive remaking of the U.S. capital's landscape in decades.

The National Capital Planning Commission said it would consider "approval of preliminary and final site and building plans" on March ‌5, according to a tentative ⁠meeting agenda posted online.

The commission is one of two federal bodies, along with the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, assigned ⁠a role in overseeing key D.C.-area building projects.

Neither group is expected to block or delay Trump's plans. Trump picked several members of both groups, and his former personal ​lawyer Will ​Scharf chairs the National Capital Planning Commission.

But ​federal courts are scrutinizing the ‌project. A judge last month expressed skepticism about whether the administration had authority to proceed with construction after a demolition that Congress didn't approve.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued in December, arguing that the project lacked the required approvals and environmental review.

In documents supporting its proposal and posted online by the commission, the ‌Trump administration said it concluded that demolition ​of the East Wing was "the most effective solution ​to many longstanding issues affecting the ​White House" in light of the 120-year-old structure's limitations, poor ‌energy efficiency and limited accessibility for ​people with disabilities.

The White ​House's disclosures were the most extensive description of the project to date, including illustrations by architect Shalom Baranes.

In those disclosures, the White House said ​the administration planned to ‌incorporate some preserved items from the East Wing, such as its ​cornerstone and a pergola designed by the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei.

(Reporting ​by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)