***Please note that the White House Sidewalk, between East Executive Avenue, NW and West Executive Avenue, NW, as well as all but a portion of the Northwest quadrant of Lafayette Park are closed by means of previously articulated and announced closures due to project work occurring in these areas and the unique security requirements of the United States Secret Service associated with protecting the White House Complex. The park closure comes at the request of the United States Secret Service, to provide necessary security and to protect visiting dignitaries, and to permit the Secret Service to perform security sweeps of the area, facilitate motorcade arrivals and departures, and restrict access to Blair House. Lesser restrictive measures will not suffice due to the Secret Service’s security-based assessment that the park area needs to be kept clear. 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 and non-park areas in the immediate vicinity will remain open to the public and for demonstration activities. The closure will not adversely affect the park’s natural, aesthetic or cultural values; nor require significant modification to the resource management objections; nor is it of a highly controversial nature. To the contrary, closures such as these are commonplace in the vicinity for visiting foreign dignitaries with Secret Service protection, and are necessary to provide for implementation of park management responsibilities, equitable allocation and use of facilities, and avoidance of conflict among visitor use activities. Accordingly, the National Park Service determines publication as rulemaking in the Federal Register is unwarranted under 36 C.F.R. § 1.5(b). This is consistent with hundreds of earlier partial and temporary park closures or public use limitations, the legal opinion of the Office of the Solicitor, and judicial adjudications. Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02-1715 (D.D.C. August 29, 2002), plaintiff’s emergency motion for injunction pending appeal denied Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02-5275 (D.C. Cir. September 9, 2002) (per curiam); Picciotto v. United States, No. 99-2113 (D.D.C. August 6, 1999); Picciotto v. United States, No. 94-1935 (D.D.C. September 9, 1994); Picciotto v. Lujan, No. 90-1261 (D.D.C. May 30, 1990); Picciotto v. Hodel, No. 87-3290 (D.D.C. January 26, 1988); Spiegel v. Babbitt, 855 F. Supp. 402 (D.D.C. 1994), aff'd 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). Pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 1.7, notice of this temporary and partial closure will be made though media advisories, maps, and by posting at conspicuous locations in the affected park areas. Finally, pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 1.5(c), this determination is available to the public upon request. /s/ John Stanwich, NPS Liaison to the White House National Capital Region April 17, 2026 |
Last updated: April 21, 2026