A local group is calling for a major change to the current proposal for the land around RFK stadium, saying more family homes are needed in the area and this is an opportunity to make sure that happens.
“We don’t want to see this land sit vacant,” said Nick Sementelli with the No Billionaires Coalition.
He spoke during a Homes Not Stadiums virtual forum Wednesday about the current proposal before the D.C. Council.
“The only thing that the city is supposed to be getting from this is the stadium will accelerate the nearby housing,” Sementelli said. “This land is valuable. This is some of the prime waterfront real estate in the city.”
But he added that the current deal doesn’t ensure new housing will happen.
“There is no target deadline for the housing with any kind of teeth in it,” he said. “If the conditions aren’t right to build housing in five more years, they can just sit on it and pay $1 in rent and not worry about it.”
The proposal aims to have the stadium ready by 2030 and housing ready for residents in 2035, but Sementelli said this current plan leaves the public out of the conversation and doesn’t ensure that building housing is a priority.
“There’s nothing in there that says, if it doesn’t get done, the city gets any of the money back,” he said. “If it doesn’t get done, then they have to give their land rights back. And in fact, until it gets done, this team gets to use the land next to it as more parking.”
Ebony Payne, the advisory neighborhood commissioner for Kingman Park, spoke at the virtual forum. In a survey of residents in the area, Payne said 67% said they wanted something other than a new stadium.
“People do want to see new housing, new vibrancy,” Payne said. “They want to see a new neighborhood. And people’s least desire was really the stadium itself.”
The “Robert F. Kennedy Campus Redevelopment Act of 2025” was introduced on June 20 and separates the RFK bill from Mayor Muriel Bowser’s “Budget Support Act.”
The main goals of the bill are to allow the council to hold public hearings singularly focused on the proposal and complete an economic impact analysis report by July.
The D.C. Council hearing on the proposal is set for July 29 at 10 a.m.
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