Walk around the site where RFK Stadium used to stand and you’ll notice there’s almost nothing there anymore. Further exploration of the neighborhood surrounding the old stadium grounds reveals a lot of one particular thing not seen in renderings of the planned new stadium released Thursday by the Washington Commanders — homes.

Many people call the Kingman Park neighborhood and surrounding area home. The neighborhood is just west of the stadium campus, and residents there hope their neighborhood benefits not from the new stadium itself, but the planned development that will surround it.

“This neighborhood needs grocery stores,” Alexis Pazmino, who leads the Friends of Kingman Park Civic Association, said. “We need a full-service grocery store over by RFK. You know, we don’t have any in this neighborhood.”

She also said she hopes local business owners will benefit from development around the new stadium, which is slated to open for the start of the Washington Commanders’ season in 2030.

“I want to see places where my money can be spent,” Pazmino said. “I have money in my pocket. I want to put it into our community. I would love to see coffee shops and restaurants and local businesses.”

Residents around the neighborhood said something similar, with one person noting a nearby 7-Eleven even closed down. They don’t want to see more of the same chains or fast food restaurants that already exist all over D.C. and the surrounding area.

But many are skeptical that small businesses will be able to afford to open up there.

“Say you’re a moms and pops,” a man named L. Randolph said. “Are you able to afford to be able to run a business in this neighborhood? Because we all know the … lease prices are going to be super expensive.”

Neighbors are also asking for something that visitors and game day fans definitely won’t like — strict parking enforcement.

“If you look, there’s only a couple cars in the streets in those designs, and that’s a, that’s kind of a dream that isn’t going to come true,” Pazmino said. “The stadium is definitely a throwback to the previous designs, but we hope that it’s not going to also be a throwback to the terrible parking and congestion that was here.”

Even though there isn’t that much around, Rodney Ford said there are already problems with parking in the neighborhood.

“I think that may be one of the biggest concerns by all of us in the neighborhood,” Randolph said. “Where are these people going to be able to park and are they going to give them enough parking options so that they don’t spill over into the neighborhood?”

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The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a spending bill that contains a provision to continue blocking Washington, D.C. from legalizing recreational marijuana sales while also warning local officials about approving cannabis dispensaries near schools.

The appropriations legislation covering Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) as well as National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2026, was approved on the floor in a vote of 341-79 on Wednesday.

A report attached to the legislation also contains a section directing federal officials to submit a report on Chinese-linked drug syndicates that operate illicit cannabis grows.

The District has long been barred from allowing regulated adult-use marijuana sales under a spending bill rider led by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), despite voters approving legalization of possession and personal cultivation in 2014.

Leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees who negotiated the legislation ahead of its release on Sunday evidently didn’t see reason to shift away from that policy.

Here’s the text of the D.C. sales rider:

“SEC. 809. (a) None of the Federal funds contained in this Act may be used to enact or carry out any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or distribution of any schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.) or any tetrahydrocannabinols derivative.

(b) No funds available for obligation or expenditure by the District of Columbia government under any authority may be used to enact any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or distribution of any schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.) or any tetrahydrocannabinols derivative for recreational purposes.”

The language may ultimately be rendered moot, however, if the Trump administration moves forward with an order from the president to expeditiously reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

In a report published in 2024, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said that while federal cannabis prohibition would still be the law of the land even if it’s rescheduled, the reform “would permit the District government, as a matter of local law, to authorize the commercial sale of recreational marijuana, establish market regulations, and levy marijuana taxes, among other policy options.”

There is a complication, however, because the congressional rider also stipulates that the District of Columbia can’t use funds to legalize or reduce penalties for “any tetrahydrocannabinols derivative.” But that term isn’t clearly defined in the rider or anywhere else in federal law.

Meanwhile, the FSGG report attached to the new spending bill also reminds D.C. officials that cannabis remains federally prohibited, and there are enhanced penalties for manufacturing or distributing marijuana within 1,000 feet of various public and private entities like schools and playgrounds.

Here’s that D.C.-specific language:

“Marijuana Dispensary Proximity to Schools.-The agreement reminds the District of Columbia that the distribution, manufacturing, and sale of marijuana remains illegal under Federal law, which includes enhanced penalties for such distribution within one thousand feet of a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school or public or private college, junior college, or university, or a playground, among other real property where children frequent.”

Another section of the report for the National Security and State bill concerns illegal drug syndicates based out of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Here’s what that section says:

“PRC-linked Criminal Drug Syndicates.-Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of the Act, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the heads of other relevant Federal agencies, shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees regarding PRC-linked criminal syndicates or nationals who may be directly or indirectly involved in illegal drug and money laundering operations in the United States, including in Maine, California, and Oregon. The information should include, as relevant, information on the involvement of officials of the Government of the PRC and PRC-linked syndicates operating in Southeast Asia.”

While the provision doesn’t mention marijuana specifically, it seems intended to target illicit Chinese cannabis operators, which were also the focus of a House subcommittee hearing last September. Much of the talk about the issue has centered around Maine, California and Oregon, as referenced in the report section.

The appropriations deal was unveiled just days after the House passed a separate spending package that would continue protecting state medical marijuana programs from federal intervention—while excluding a provision that previously advanced to block the Justice Department from rescheduling cannabis. That proposal now heads to the Senate for consideration.

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GOP senators have separately tried to block the administration from rescheduling cannabis as part of a standalone bill filed in 2023, but that proposal did not receive a hearing or vote.

Meanwhile, last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said the marijuana rescheduling appeal process “remains pending” despite President Donald Trump’s recent executive order directing the attorney general to finalize the process of moving cannabis to Schedule III.

Advocates may welcome the exclusion of the rescheduling provision and inclusion of medical marijuana protections in the CJS bill, but many cannabis stakeholders have protested Trump’s signing of a separate appropriations measure in November that includes provisions to ban most consumable hemp products.