"The documents suggest the government steered a parkland lease through an unusually fast process that favored a businessman with a financial interest in the site."
"National Park Service officials repeatedly raised legal and environmental concerns over the Trump administration’s plan to lease public parkland, including the site of a professional tennis tournament, to a private operator widely expected to be the tournament’s operator, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.
Park Service employees objected to leasing property that stretched well beyond the Rock Creek Tennis Center, where the long-running DC Open is played, and warned that the plan could affect an endangered-species habitat and run afoul of federal rules designed to keep parkland accessible to the public.
“The park vehemently disagrees with these lease boundaries,” officials wrote on draft lease documents, adding: “This lease proposal does not meet these legal requirements.”
The documents, obtained through a public-records request by an advocacy group that opposes the project, also suggest the federal government steered a long-term lease of public parkland through an unusually fast process that limited potential bidders and positioned Washington businessman Mark Ein, who has a direct financial interest in the health of the site, to win the contract."
