The city council's Committee on Finance and Revenue will be having a mark-up session this afternoon at 3:45 that includes Bill 17-0292, the "Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Public Improvements Revenue Bonds Approval Amendment Act of 2007", which, in amending the original Capper PILOT bill from 2006, makes some "technical clarifications" and also authorizes a $55 million bond issuance. This bond, now $11 million larger what was originally anticipated because of increased borrowing costs, will provide $36.7 million for public infrastructure improvements like environmental remediation, building of two new streets (Second Place and Third Place), and water and sewer upgrades and replacements. Once this bill is passed by the council, the Housing Authority will be able to move forward with issuing the bonds, probably in Q2 2008; in fact, they have already sent out a Request for Proposals for underwriters for these bonds, which closes on Friday (Dec. 7). This bond will then be repaid by the payments in lieu of property taxes that landowners within the Capper PILOT area will be responsible for. (The draft council bill and the underwriting RFP give much more detail about the PILOT plan, if you're interested.)

The construction that's currently tearing up the streets at Capitol Quarter is a separate first-phase contract, allowing EYA to complete the initial work on public infrastructure that needs to be done before they can start work on the "private" infrastructure (the utilities and other work under the house lots themselves). Once that is done, then "vertical construction" can begin on the houses themselves, which is the work that is now scheduled to begin in the spring.

And, the DC Building Permit feed shows that six-month extensions for Capitol Quarter permits have recently been approved.

So, while none of this answers what was probably the meat of the WTDW question--I know everyone really wants all sorts of skinny on the "whys" of the delays--it does give some semblance of an update on where things are.

Post-Hearing UPDATE: The bill was moved out of mark-up ("reported favorably") with no discussion, and next goes to Committee of the Whole (presumably at next Tuesday's meeting). Note that the online version of the bill is the original draft, and may not reflect the current wording. Jack Evans mentioned at mark-up that there will be an amendment offered at the Committee of the Whole, but didn't elaborate. And here's the draft committee report on the bill, which gives a less technical description of the changes being made to the original 2006 PILOT legislation.

These tidbits came from yesterday's holiday lighting ceremony, which I wasn't able to attend (though the Nats320 blog was there and has photos) and which doesn't seem to be covered on the local networks' video offerings. But be sure to look at the stadium web cam images from Wednesday evening for some particualrly striking photos of the ballpark, lit up at night with a blanket of snow on the field.

UPDATE: Oops, here's the MLB.com piece on the ceremony, with lots of details.

UPDATE II: One more note on the holiday lighting ceremony--a press release from the Nationals today says that the Nationals and Clark Construction subsequently donated the 10-foot Douglas Fir used in the ceremony to the South Washington/West of the River Family Strengthening Collaborative, for its use at a Dec. 12 holiday celebration at Westerminster Presbyterian Church at 400 I Street, SW.

The press release about the meeting also reports that the six "clean team members" have collected more than 1,200 bags of trash around the BID, and two "hospitality/safety ambassadors" have provided "over 50 informational assists."

UPDATE: WBJ writes a blurb from the press release, too.

And, in a story just barely tied to the stadium, The WashTimes reports about the Nationals' work through its Dream Foundation to create a youth baseball academy at Fort DuPont Park in Southwest, perhaps at the expense of renovating the city's baseball and softball fields: "Under the conditions of the lease tied to the Nationals' new ballpark, the team is required to help youth baseball programs in the District by operating a new baseball academy, holding clinics and providing free equipment to groups in need. By most accounts, the team has done well in meeting those requirements, but a provision of the lease calling for the team to renovate fields in the city has gotten less attention. [...] Tanenbaum said she is aware of complaints involving the city's playing fields but said she is being cautious about taking on too much in just the second year of operations for the foundation [...] Nationals director of community relations Barbra Silva said she and Tanenbaum have talked with Play Ball DC and the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation and said the team could begin helping with renovations this year. But they want to ensure the fields not only are renovated but maintained." The article also mentions that the foundation "will start a charitable program next spring relating to the neighborhood around the team's new ballpark."