Washington panel set to consider Trump's ballroom project in March

U.S. President Donald Trump's White House ballroom project may get a blessing from Washington planning authorities as soon as next month.



Trump razed the White House's East Wing in October to make way for a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) addition that he says will be privately financed. The administration planned the neoclassical building's ribbon-cutting for summer 2028 as part of the most extensive remaking of the U.S. capital's landscape in decades.



The National Capital Planning Commission said it would consider "approval of preliminary and final site and building plans" on March 5, according to a tentative meeting agenda posted online.



The commission is one of two federal bodies, along with the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, assigned a role in overseeing key D.C.-area building projects.



Neither group is expected to block or delay Trump's plans. Trump picked several members of both groups, and his former personal lawyer Will Scharf chairs the National Capital Planning Commission.