If you’ve got a council of city representatives nervous about spending over $500 million for a stadium, what’s the best way to soothe their nerves? Throw another huge, risky capital project their way, of course!

One would think we’re joking, but D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has done just that. Amidst on-going discussions over the $667 million stadium for the Washington Nationals, Williams yesterday entered into an agreement with Howard University to build a new, state-of-the-art hospital on the site of the old D.C. General Hospital in Southeast. Ambitiously called the National Capital Medical Center, the 250-bed hospital is set to cost $400 million, with the District kicking in $212 million of that.

To boot, Williams is refusing to put the hospital through a certificate of need process, a bureaucratic stepping stone that ensures that large capital projects are actually needed before they are built. Furthermore, the agreement signed does not specify how much of the hospital’s care would be directed towards the District’s uninsured residents and if it would address the city’s most pressing health problems, leaving many questioning the need for such an expenditure. And to add insult to injury, the existing Howard University Hospital on Georgia Avenue NW recently announced $17.3 million in losses in 2005, throwing into to question their ability to finance their share and manage the hospital.

Once this measure stalls in the council, what else will Williams propose the city build?