A U.S. District Court judge has temporarily blocked the government’s plan to close a public park in Washington, D.C., but not the closure of the municipal golf course located in the park.
Judge Ana Reyes granted a temporary restraining order late Saturday to keep East Potomac Park open through Nov. 28.
On Thursday, the Department of Interior filed a notice on the department’s website that East Potomac Park, including the golf course, would close on Saturday because of “numerous safety concerns due to their poor condition.” The notice also cited the lack of “operational management” as a reason to close the course and park.
“The Department of the Interior has progressed from removing the trees to removing the people from East Potomac Park,” Reyes wrote in her ruling.
President Donald Trump has said multiple times on social media that the government planned to close the course on Saturday to begin construction of a Tom Fazio-designed championship course that will measure more than 8,000 yards.
“Trash Island is currently the Worst Golf Course anywhere in the World, but the Department of the Interior is going to make it into the Best Golf Course anywhere in the World,” Trump posted on social media Saturday. “Unfortunately, Judge Ana Reyes doesn’t want us to quickly and inexpensively fix up the Course which is, also, very dangerous — The Fairways are far too close together.
“When you walk down the corridors of Trash Island, you don’t hear the sound of the running Potomac, all you hear is the sound of people screaming, ‘FORE!’”
During another contentious hearing on Friday with acrimonious exchanges between Reyes and representatives from the Department of Interior and the Justice Department, the judge referenced a 2011 report addressing the deterioration of the sea wall around Hains Points.
“But we haven’t shut down East Point until now, what has happened in the last, since February, on the sea wall to go from deteriorating and not requiring everything to be shut down to deteriorating and everything has to be shut down?” Reyes asked. “It certainly wasn’t a safety hazard that we couldn’t allow 30,000 people to run around East Potomac Park [for the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 25].”
The National Park Service ended its contract with the National Links Trust to operate East Potomac Golf Links. In her ruling, Reyes “enjoined the government from closing East Potomac Park and the East Potomac Golf Course during the daily hours in which they were open as of Nov. 14. It does not order the government to undertake any active management of either.”
Neither did Reyes rule that the government must “operate East Potomac Golf Course for play, or enter into any contract with any concessioner to operate East Potomac Golf Course for play.” Which leaves the popular Walter Travis-designed layout, which averages more than 88,000 rounds per year, in limbo.
The proposed redesigned Fazio course would remove two nine-hole courses from the property as well as Ohio Drive Southwest, which circles the course on Hains Point and is popular with runners and bicyclist.