According to yesterday's Washington Times, officials at the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission still maintain, despite "a growing wave of pessmism among bidding groups seeking to buy the club," that the new baseball stadium will be ready for the 2008 season: " 'There are simply a lot of things out of everybody's direct control right now, whether they be lawsuits and what a judge might do, what ends up happening with the environmental aspect of this, or contracts coming before the council,' " said one anonymous prospective owner. The article also lists some developments: the DCSE commission approved an $11.5 million relocation of Pepco utility lines to help make way for the ballpark; HOK Sport and Devroaux & Purnell, architects on the project, have selected a northeast orientation for the stadium, which will give views of the Capitol dome over the left-field wall; a construction manager to oversee the $607 million ballpark will be selected within three weeks; and DC Office of Property Management will begin making bids on the 33 parcels of land in the stadium footprint later this month. If deals cannot be struck, District officials will begin efforts to seize the land through eminent domain. As the article notes, "But the construction calendar with Major League Baseball calls for a full acquisition and rezoning of the land, as well as an environmental assessment, by Dec. 31 -- just 118 days from now." Tick, tick, tick...!

The Post reports that Mayor Williams has approved the city entering a private financing deal with Deutsche Bank for the new baseball stadium. "Under tentative terms the city would accept a $246 million payment from the bank in exchange for revenue from stadium concession taxes and an annual rent payment from the Washington Nationals. The payment would help cut taxes on city businesses from $14 million a year to about $8 million a year to help finance construction bonds."

Yesterday the National Capital Planning Commission took up the issue of the new baseball stadium, voting that the text amendment to the Capitol Gateway Zoning Overlay "would not adversely affect federal interests" (their normal stamp of approval). According to the Post, among the details decided were: not to allow lights higher than 130 feet; to make sure parking would be inside the stadium and underground; not to require that the outfield walls frame a view of the Capitol dome, and to let the architect of the Capitol and the U.S. Capitol Police have design input in the on security matters and on line-of-sight issues between the ballpark and the dome. (The Post brief seems to indicate that the NCPC's vote has now made the "ballpark zone" official--but there is still a required final approval vote by the DC Zoning Board, which will most likely come at its Sept. 15 public meeting.) If you want to read the entire proposed text amendment, you need to first visit the main DC Register site before this link to the proposed text amendment will work....  UPDATE: A tiny bit more of detail on the text amendment from the Washington Business Journal: requirements that at least 20 percent of the stadium's frontage be for retail or entertainment, that the ballpark be set back at least 15 feet from the street, and that the ballpark scoreboard isn't so bright that it will temporarily blind motorists on South Capitol Street and other nearby roads.  (But, no, this doesn't create a Capitol Gateway Zoning Overlay, this amends it.) WBJ also mentions that the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation is close to issuing an official request for information to developers interested in building around the site, a first step in deciding which companies get to partner with the AWC on forming the 14-acre ballpark district.