Youth Sports Park Near RFK Stadium Gets Boost in Support

Capitol Hill residents are ratcheting up pressure on the D.C. government to bring playing fields, bike trails and a farmers market pavilion to parking lots near RFK Stadium.

Capitol Riverside Youth Sports Park, which has been in the works since at least 2011, would bring the fields and other outdoor amenities to the parking lots north of RFK — if the District will fund them.

The development “could be a potential boon to Hill East,” ANC 6B chairwoman Kirsten Oldenburg wrote in a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. The commission’s planning committee approved that letter last night.

“The CRYSP vision is to turn environmentally unfriendly and wasteful surface parking lots into an active gathering space for youth and adults sports,” Oldenburg wrote.

Bob Coomber, a board member of Friends of Capitol Riverside Youth Sports Park, said the park on federal land that the District now leases would fulfill a “great need” in the District: outdoor space for children.

“I have a very active almost 4-year-old and an ever-more-active 1-year-old who are going to need space to run around and play,” he said. “Frankly, they don’t have enough room right now.”

A representative for Bowser didn’t respond immediately to an inquiry. As councilwoman, the mayor endorsed a resolution in 2013 in support of the park. Charles Allen, Ward 6’s councilman, also has backed the project.

All ANC 6B commissioners are expected to vote on the letter at the group’s full board meeting March 10.

Photos via Facebook/Friends of Capitol Riverside Youth Sports Park