Record of Determination for a Partial and Temporary Closure for the 2023 Mubadala Citi DC Open Tennis Tournament

Pursuant to 36 CFR § 1.5(a), Rock Creek Park, a unit of the National Park Service, is temporarily and partially closing certain parkland for a permitted special event activity from 5:30 am Monday July 10, 2023 through Friday August 11, 2023 at 5:00 pm. The closure includes William HG Fitzgerald Tennis Stadium, as well as the surrounding outdoor tennis courts and parking lot area directly west of the tennis complex. The closed area will be more particularly identified by fencing and signage.

For load in of materials and equipment in support of the event, from July 10, 2023 to July 28, 2023, the site will be closed to the public to protect public safety during the operation of heavy trucks, lifts, and other heavy equipment. Similarly, the site will be closed August 7 through August 11, 2023 for the load out of this equipment. The site will only be open to employees and contractors of the Special Event Permittee, under the supervision of an NPS Incident Management Team, during these dates.

The event will be opened to ticketed spectators July 29, 2023 through August 6, 2023. The primary entrance gates for ticket holders attending will be at the north end entrance to the tennis complex parking lot at Stage Road, NW and at the southeast perimeter of the closure fence to the southwest of the southernmost tennis courts. Additionally, there will be a back of house entrance gate restricted for event deliveries to the northeast of the perimeter on a temporary road of ground-protection matting connecting the perimeter to Morrow Drive, NW. Emergency exits will include these entrance gates as well as the sidewalk to the immediate north of the clay tennis courts.

The Special Event Permittee will hire a licensed and certified security firm to conduct entrance screenings of ticketed attendees to keep prohibited items out of the closure area. Items prohibited to be brought within the closure area through the entrance screening are:

• firearms
• knives
• any other item that can be construed as a weapon
• illegal substances/drugs of any kind
• alcohol
• large umbrellas
• animals, except for service animals
• fireworks or any other incendiary device
• opaque backpacks

The park closure is necessary for the safety of event participants and the protection of natural and cultural resources in the permit area. Less restrictive measures will not suffice because of the necessity to maintain safety and resource protection. This temporary and partial closure is not of a nature, magnitude and duration that will result in a "significant alteration in the public use pattern." Indeed, other nearby park areas will remain open to the public.

The closure will not adversely affect the park's natural, aesthetic, or cultural values; nor require significant modification to the resource management objectives; nor is it of a highly controversial nature. Accordingly, the National Park Service determines that publication as rulemaking in the Federal Register is unwarranted under 36 CFR 1.5(c). This is consistent with hundreds of earlier partial and temporary park closures, the legal opinion of the Office of the Solicitor, and judicial adjudications. (Picciotto v. United States, No. 99-2113 (D.D.C.); Picciotto v. United States, No. 94-1935 (D.D.C.); Picciotto v. Lujan, No. 90-1261 (D.D.C.); Picciotto v. Hodel, No. 87-3290 (D.D.C.); Spiegel v. Babbitt, 855 F.Supp. 402 (D.D.C. 1994), affld in part w/o op. 56 F.3d 1531 (D.C. Cir. 1995))

Pursuant to 36 CFR 1.7, notice of this temporary and partial closure will be made by fencing off affected areas of Rock Creek Park and the posting of signs at conspicuous locations. Finally, pursuant to 36 CFR l.5(c), this determination is available to the public upon request.

Brian Joyner
Superintendent (Acting)