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Pursuant to 36 CFR § 1.5(a)(1) the National Mall and Memorial Parks is temporarily closing certain designated parkland and imposing public use limitations for staging and events related to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. National Mall and Memorial Parks will close West Basin Drive SW beginning on Monday, March 14, 2022, at 6:00 a.m. and will remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 8, 2022. This area will be closed to vehicular traffic at each roadway entrance with blocking vehicles and jersey barriers. Pedestrians will maintain access to West Basin Drive SW as well as the entrances to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial located along this roadway. The oldest grove of cherry trees, located just west of the Japanese Lantern, will also be closed for resource protection as they cannot handle the volume of visitors who visit during the festival. This area will also be marked by fencing and signage. In addition, the Tidal Basin Parking Lot will be subject to intermittent closures to ensure pedestrian safety due to heavy park visitation during the peak bloom period of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The time period for potential closures of this parking lot will begin at 10:00 p.m. on Friday, March 18, 2022, and remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, April 3, 2022. To alleviate traffic congestion during heavy festival visitation, Ohio Drive SW, between Inlet Bridge and the John Ericsson Memorial will assume a one-way traffic pattern from Saturday March 19, 2022, through Sunday, April 3, 2022. Message boards will be in place to assist visitors traveling in these areas. Finally, the rear portion of Parking Lot C in East Potomac Park will be closed from Friday, March 18, 2022, at 10 p.m. and will remain closed until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 3, 2022. This closure is to compensate for employee parking lost in the Tidal Basin Parking Lot due to the aforementioned closure. All park closures are necessary for special public events associated with the National Cherry Blossom Festival and resource protection. Additional public parking will be made available daily at Parking Lots A and B and the front portion of Parking Lot C, as well as in East Potomac Park, and visitors will maintain the ability to view the oldest grove of trees and enjoy the other trees located around the Tidal Basin. The temporary closure is not of a nature, magnitude or duration that will result in a “significant alteration in the public use pattern.” The closure will not adversely affect the park’s natural aesthetic or cultural values, nor require significant modification to the resource management objection, nor is it of a highly controversial nature. Accordingly, the National Park Service determines publication as rulemaking in the Federal Register is unwarranted under 36 CFR § 1.5(c). This determination is consistent with hundreds of earlier partial or temporary closures, the legal opinion of the Office of the Solicitor, and judicial adjudications that have upheld other NPS closures and public use limitations. Spiegel v. Babbitt, 855 F. Supp. 402 (D.D.C. 1994) affd in part w/o op. 56 F. 3d 1531 (D.C. Cir. 1995), reported in full, 1995 US App. Lexis 15200 (D.C. Cir. May 31, 1995); ANSWER Coalition v. Norton, No. 05-0071, (D.D.C. January 18, 2005), Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02-1715 (D.D.C. August 22, 2002), plaintiff’s emergency motion for appeal for injunction pending appealed denied Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02-5275 (D.C. Cir. September 9, 2002) (per curium); Picciotto v. United States, No. 99-2113 (D.D.C. August 6, 1999); Picciotto v. Lujan, No. 90-1261 (D.D.C. May 30, 1990) Picciotto v. Hodel, No. 87-3290 (D.D.C. December 7, 1987). Pursuant to 36 CFR § 1.5(c), 1.7, notice of this temporary and partial closure will be made through roadway gates and the posting of signs at conspicuous locations in the affected park area. Finally, pursuant to 36 CFR § 1.5(c), this determination is available to the public upon request. Jeffrey P. Reinbold, Superintendent National Mall and Memorial Parks March 10, 2022 
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Last updated: March 11, 2022