Breaking news: "Mayor Tony Williams has asked the D.C. Council not to vote Tuesday on the baseball stadium lease agreement. Williams has withdrawn the lease from consideration to make what his office calls "technical changes." Williams says he will continue to work aggressively with the federal government, private developers and Major League Baseball to put together the best deal possible for the city. Cropp says she will work with the mayor to put the lease back on the council agenda as soon as possible." I don't know yet what this actually means, whether there really are changes, or if Tony knew he didn't have the votes. More as I get it. Here's the mayor's press release. UPDATE: Rumors flying fast and furious, if you want to track them you can visit the Ballpark Guys's Nationals board. Posters there are saying that this is tied to Tony getting a commitment from the Feds to pay for the Navy Yard station upgrades. UPDATE, 7:05 pm: The Post now has a story up about the delay; big tidbits include that the city has gotten a letter from the four ballpark district developers offering to pay for $12 million worth of repairs to roads around the stadium. UPDATE, 7:39 pm: Jim Graham says the lease didn't have the votes. UPDATE, 9:39 pm: MLB.com has a story on yet another (!) stern letter from MLB COO Bob DuPuy, warning the council: "If the lease is not approved by [Dec. 31], the city will be in default on its contractual commitments and we will then have no choice but to prepare for arbitration." UPDATE, 12:45 am: Here's the Washington Times piece on it all.

Reminder: On Monday, Dec. 19, Mayor Williams, members of the City Council, and community members will gather for a rally in support of keeping baseball in the District and revitalizing Southeast Washington with a new ballpark.  The rally will be at Freedom Plaza (across from the Wilson Building, on Pennsylvania Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets) at noon. According to the Washington Times, stadium opponents are trying to organize a counter-rally at the same time and place. UPDATE: See the flyer e-mailed out by the Mayor's office on Sunday, laying out the arguments for approving the lease that would allow the stadium to be built in Near Southeast. UPDATE II: Here's the Post's afternoon piece about the rally.

"Williams, Cropp Push To Tweak Stadium Lease" is the Post's Saturday story, detailing talks between council members, the mayor, and Major League Baseball to try to push MLB to contribute more to the construction of the new baseball stadium, and also a request for the federal government to contribute to the cost of upgrading the Navy Yard Metro station. The article gives a current council vote tally as 5-4 (Cropp, Evans, Patterson, Orange, Ambrose voting yes, Catania, Graham, Fenty, and Barry voting no), leaving Schwartz, Mendelson, Brown, and Gray as the swing votes. UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Washington Times focuses on the efforts of anti-ballpark activists ("Ballpark foes look to council for help"), and includes its own estimate of the current vote stances of council members.

From Thursday's Post ("Williams, MLB Turn Up Heat On Council's Stadium Foes"): "Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Major League Baseball officials began intensely lobbying D.C. Council members yesterday to win support for a stadium lease agreement that is critical to the future of a ballpark along the Anacostia River. In personal meetings, Williams promised to support council members on some of their key issues, including school renovation, if they vote in favor of the lease Tuesday. By day's end, Williams and his top advisers said that they had firmed up more support for the lease and that they planned to continue lobbying until the vote." Tony is also is also quoted as saying, "I'm not sure the letter [from MLB to the city council stating that RFK is not acceptable] was helpful. [...] It looks like another decree from baseball." UPDATE: And the Washington Times has an article centering around an interview done by editors and reporters with the Mayor, that includes much discussion of the problems with moving to RFK.  In the meantime, opponents of the stadium are demonstrating today outside the Wilson Building.

I imagine there will be tidbits throughout the day coming out of the council roundtable on the stadium, but I'll start now with the text of CFO Gandhi's prepared statement. UPDATE: Here is Mayor Williams's testimony, and an AP story about it. And don't forget the streaming video. UPDATE II: According to the AP, MLB President Bob DuPuy wrote to Linda Cropp today, telling her that baseball's other 29 teams (who together own the Nationals) are opposed to RFK as an alternative. Oops.... UPDATE III: "Baseball Opposes Moving Stadium" from the Post summarizes the day's events at the council roundtable and in the MLB chambers. UPDATE IV: The WashTimes's story on the day's events paints a bleaker picture of whether the council will approve the lease at its vote on Dec. 20.

The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation has posted the "South Capitol Street Waterfront District Summary of Recommendations" that it presented at the "master developers" announcement on Monday. Nothing terribly new in it for JDLand readers (except perhaps noting their slight hedge of using "South Capitol Street Waterfront District" instead of "Ballpark District"), but it does also include the entire list of companies in the two development teams, and one rendering of what Half Street south of M may look like down the road, which I promptly snagged and put at the top of my Ballpark District page (to which I've also added some new photos of the WASA land).

A date has now been set for the Zoning Commission hearing on the new proposed amendment to the Capital Gateway Overlay: Jan. 30 at 6 pm. Here is the hearing notice, and also the Office of Planning's report and draft of the proposed text change that was submitted to the Zoning Commission for discussion.

The DC CFO's office has released updated estimates of the cost of building a new major league baseball stadium at the site currently proposed in Southeast DC and at a site adjacent to RFK Stadium. In a letter to Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, Gandhi estimates the total cost for the proposed Southeast DC site to be $667.3 million; the cost for the site at RFK is estimated at $605.5 million. These will be hashed over at Tuesday's BYOBV (bring your own bulletproof vest) Council Roundtable, starting at 10 am, and viewable via streaming video or on DC Cable 13). UPDATE: Here is the Post's article on the new cost estimates, along with discussion about the feasibility of moving to the RFK site. UPDATE II: The WashTimes's article condenses both the updated estimates and the naming of the teams of developers for the Ballpark District.

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