WASHINGTON — Contractors have begun trimming trees in Sherman Park southeast of the White House, and construction fencing has appeared in part of the park, days after federal planners gave final approval to a permanent visitor screening facility that is expected to be built largely beneath the site.
The work is among the first visible changes around the park as the White House prepares for construction of the 33,000-square-foot underground screening center. The National Capital Planning Commission approved final site and building plans Thursday for the project, which is being developed by the White House in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service and the National Park Service.
The approved plan places the screening facility beneath the west side of Sherman Park, with an entrance pavilion on the park’s west side and a roughly 4,000-square-foot exit facility on East Executive Avenue. The project is intended to replace the temporary tents and barriers now used to screen White House tour groups, event guests, staff and contractors.
Plans reviewed earlier in the federal approval process said approximately six trees would be removed and replaced with suitable native species and landscaping under federal tree-preservation policies. The final planning review also called for a landscape plan identifying replacement-tree locations and species. Contractors were observed trimming trees in the area this weekend, but officials have not publicly identified each tree being worked on or said whether all of the current tree work is directly related to removal and site preparation for the screening facility.
The National Park Service completed its environmental review Sept. 21, finding that the project would not have significant environmental impacts. Federal planners have said much of the structure was placed below ground to reduce its visual effect on President’s Park and that landscaping would be restored in areas disturbed by construction.
Sherman Park is currently closed to the public as part of a broader Secret Service-requested security closure around the White House complex.
Administration officials have been preparing to begin construction this month. The White House has said it wants the new screening facility operating by July 2028.
