DC delegate calls for sledding waiver ahead of snowstorm

With 4 to 8 inches of snow expected to blanket downtown D.C. on Thursday, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is renewing her push to let the public sled on Capitol Hill.

{mosads}Holmes Norton sent a letter to U.S. Capitol Police Board Chair Frank Larkin on Wednesday asking for the ban on sledding on U.S. Capitol grounds to be temporarily lifted for the weekend beginning on Thursday.

“The District of Columbia is expected to receive seven to eight inches of snow tomorrow, the largest snowfall this winter,” she said in the letter. “Families have started calling my office because they do not want to be turned away once again from sledding on U.S. Capitol Grounds.”

Holmes Norton, who asked the Capitol Police Board to nix the regulation altogether last month, said the Capitol grounds have one of the best hills for sledding in the District.

The ban on sledding on the slope in front of the Capitol has existed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

According to the National Weather Service, a winter storm warning is in effect for D.C. from midnight to 9 p.m. Thursday. The storm is expected to start as a wintery mix around midnight and then turn to heavy snow in the late morning to mid-afternoon.