The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks is urging Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to invite public feedback before the administration moves forward with President Donald Trump’s plans to build a massive White House ballroom in place of the recently demolished East Wing.
The group, which includes more than 4,700 current and former National Park Service employees, also expressed concern in a Thursday letter about last month’s teardown of the East Wing without public notice or consultation with federal planning boards.
“We, like others, recognize that the White House has been altered multiple times before in its 225-year history,” the group wrote. “However, the scale of this latest alteration — removing the East Wing and proposing to replace it with a structure that is much larger than the White House itself — is troubling.”
The letter says that the demolition lacked transparency because it failed to consult with the National Capital Planning Commission or the White House Historical Association.
