The area just north of RFK Stadium is a barren landscape of parking lots that are often empty, spare for the occasional use for D.C. United games or a weekend farmers market. A community group now wants to put those parking lots to better use by turning them into a 40-acre network of parks and sports fields.

The plan for the Capitol Riverside Youth Sports Park has been in the works for over a year, but only recently have the organizers been able to present a vision of what they would want the park to look like. According to their plan, the new park would be composed of multi-use fields, substantial green space, walking paths, and a covered farmer’s market pavilion. The park would be created to ease the demand on sports fields throughout the city; organizers say that the thousands of kids registered for soccer, football, baseball, and other sports far outstrips the places for them to actually play them.

A number of nearby neighborhood groups have given the park the nod, and it attracted the most votes in an online forum hosted by the D.C. government to encourage residents to submit ideas on how to make D.C. more sustainable. (Supporters say the park would soak up stormwater runoff that now ends up in the Anacostia River.) Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) is on board; he chairs the D.C. Council committee that deals with parks and recreation sites.

The park is still a ways from reality, and there’s the usual obstacle to be overcome: money. The park’s supporters envision a public-private partnership with D.C. to help pay for the park’s construction.

Capitol Riverside Youth Sports Park 11-15-12