Memorial Circle Arch Unlawfully Bypassed Meaningful Environmental Review, Would Severely Impact Arlington County and its Residents
October 9, 2026 - Arlington, Va. – The Arlington County Board filed legal action against the Trump-Vance administration on Thursday, asking a court to stop the development of a massively intrusive and harmful 250-foot arch proposed for Memorial Circle. The arch project would have disastrous consequences for the County and its residents. The vanity project dressed as a military complex would dramatically worsen traffic in an already-busy corridor that carries large numbers of commercial, personal, and emergency vehicles, as well as pedestrians and cyclists, within Arlington County, Virginia, and between the county and the District of Columbia each day.
In October of 2025, without any pretense of prior authorization or funding from Congress, President Trump announced plans to construct a massive new arch, which will rise 250 feet — more than twice the height of the Lincoln Memorial, roughly equivalent to a 25-story commercial building, and tall enough to extend far past the height limitations established for safe airplane travel to and from Reagan National Airport. The arch, the latest vanity project proposed by Trump, will occupy more than 15,000 square feet of ground space in Memorial Circle, a large traffic circle situated between the western end of Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery. Pointing to the undeniable harm that will come to people who live and work in Arlington County, the County Board filed suit, asking a court to prevent any demolition or construction for the project until an appropriate environmental review is completed. The board is represented by the Arlington County Attorney’s Office in partnership with Democracy Forward in the legal challenge.
The case is particularly urgent because the National Park Service (NPS), the agency responsible for projects on national park land such as Memorial Circle, has signaled that it is proceeding full-speed toward ground-disturbing construction in the very near future in accordance with the president’s repeated marching orders. Indeed, it appears certain that NPS will begin construction, with full-scale work likely to begin as soon as the National Capital Planning Commission rubber-stamps the project (potentially as soon as its scheduled meeting on November 5, 2026).
“The Arlington County Board has filed this lawsuit because our community has the most to lose from this egregious and unlawful proposed project,” said Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti. “We have diligently and in good faith engaged in the review process, pointing out severe, unique, and wide-ranging negative impacts to the county and our residents. Despite these concerns and that process not being complete, it was recently, unilaterally, announced that the project will move forward anyway—entirely disregarding protocol and months of work. Enough is enough. We will do all we can to hold this administration accountable and to protect and serve the best interests of our community.”
As part of the project development process, NPS was required to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act by taking a “hard look” at the environmental impacts of the arch project. That legally mandated process required the agency to consider the many ways the project will harm the human environment, including its historic, cultural, and aesthetic impacts, and to evaluate reasonable alternatives and mitigation measures. NPS failed to meet those obligations, however, and instead completed only a cursory and conclusory review.
NPS’s truncated review was inappropriate for the project and failed to assess its full impacts. For example, NPS failed to look at how construction of the arch will harm public safety in Arlington by clogging thoroughfares needed for emergency transport services run by the county, including emergency services for Arlington National Cemetery. Nor did the assessment consider how the arch threatens to increase noise and air pollution in Arlington by impacting flights into and out of Reagan National Airport.
“The president is not allowed to bypass legal review requirements just because he wants to move quickly on his own whims, and NPS clearly violated the law by failing to conduct an adequate review of the arch project,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, we don’t need vanity projects. This project will do significant harm to the people of Arlington County. We are honored to work with our clients to defend the rule of law and to stop the proposed arch from jeopardizing public safety and the quality of life for the people who live, work and visit the area.”
The case is County Board of Arlington County, VA v. National Park Service, et al. Democracy Forward’s legal team involved in this case includes Kate Talmor, Catherine Carroll, and Gregory Cumming.
Read the complaint filed today here.
Trump Arch credit: NBC News
Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
Source: Democracy Forward Foundation
