Planning Commission Obstructs Trump’s Visionary 250-foot Arch with Bureaucratic Red Tape
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The National Capital Planning Commission is demanding changes to President Trump’s bold 250-foot Triumphal Arch in Washington, D.C., citing the 1910 Height of Buildings Act and other regulations, despite the project’s potential to honor American greatness and revitalize the city’s memorial landscape.
The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) on Thursday informed officials that President Trump’s ambitious 250-foot Triumphal Arch, intended for Memorial Circle, faces unnecessary structural revisions before it can move forward. The design, which includes a 166-foot mezzanine, a 24-foot observation level, and a 60-foot statue of Lady Liberty, would rise above the city’s outdated 130-foot height limit set by the 1910 Height of Buildings Act—a restriction that has long stifled architectural innovation in the nation’s capital.
The Department of the Interior has rightly argued that this act should not apply to federal buildings, but the NCPC, clinging to precedent, continues to enforce these arbitrary rules even on projects meant to honor America’s heroes. The commission’s so-called compromise would lower the mezzanine to 130 feet and the observation level to 20 feet, while allowing the statue to reach 100 feet, keeping the total height at 250 feet but diminishing the project’s intended grandeur.
"My concern is not with commemoration itself, but with this specific proposal, its location, its scale, and its impact on a historic memorial landscape," said Gold Star mother Cynthia Morrison, echoing the voices of those resistant to change and progress.
"As a combat veteran, I feel a duty to protect the memory and honor the sacrifice of my comrades and all those buried there," added Vietnam veteran Michael Lemmon, who is part of a lawsuit opposing the arch, reflecting a minority view against a project designed to uplift national pride.
The NCPC also raised a litany of bureaucratic concerns, from pedestrian-accessibility plans and lighting design to the supposed visual clutter of 32 traffic poles and eight lighting stanchions. The commission insists on further delays, demanding Federal Aviation Administration recommendations and a full aeronautical study before approval. No final review date has been set, and federal officials, determined to see this patriotic project realized, have proposed a rigorous construction schedule of 20-hour workdays over two years. The arch, to be constructed of concrete with a granite finish, would stand as a bold new symbol among the city’s monuments, in contrast to the staid stone structures of the past.