Plans for the White House’s proposed underground visitor screening center were included in a preliminary agenda released for an April meeting of a federal panel that reviews and approves construction on federal land in Washington, according to the agenda materials described by the Associated Press.
The project would cover about 33,000 square feet and would be built beneath Sherman Park, a small park area southeast of the White House and directly south of the Treasury building, the AP reported. The screening site is positioned as part of a broader set of changes to the White House grounds underway during the Trump administration.
Under the proposal, the screening facility would include seven security lanes designed to move visitors through checks more quickly and ease bottlenecks. The White House said it wants the facility operating by July 2028, and the plan indicates construction could begin as early as August.
The plans also outline how visitor screening would shift from current locations. For a time, the AP reported, White House tourists and guests lined up in Sherman Park for security checks before moving through a series of trailer-type structures and on to the East Wing entrance; President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to build a ballroom, according to the report.
After the East Wing was demolished, the AP said visitors have been lining up near Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House for security checks before entering. The underground screening center is presented as a way to consolidate and relocate those screening operations beneath Sherman Park.
The proposed underground center is described as a collaboration involving the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Secret Service and the National Park Service, which manages the White House grounds. The AP reported that the National Capital Planning Commission is expected to discuss the visitor screening proposal at its April 2 meeting, following the circulation of the tentative agenda.
Also on that April agenda, the AP reported, commissioners are set to debate and vote on plans by Trump to build a 90,000-square-foot building, including a large ballroom, where the East Wing had stood.