The Arlington County Board in Virginia filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Thursday, in an effort to block the construction of the President’s proposed triumphal arch in Washington, D.C.

The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, specifically names Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, along with acting director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron. It comes ahead of a National Capital Planning Commission final vote on the project scheduled for Nov. 5, two days after the midterm elections.

“The Trump-Vance Administration has made it a priority to remake the physical landscape of the Nation’s Capital in President Trump’s image and based on his whims, destroying treasured public spaces in the process,” attorneys for Arlington County wrote in the complaint.

Lawyers for the county also cite concerns around the project’s impact on the county and its residences, as well as on tourists. Arlington County is home to the Pentagon, as well as the historic Arlington National Cemetery.

“It threatens to increase noise and air pollution in Arlington by necessitating the diversion of certain flights into and out of Reagan National Airport,” the lawyers wrote. “Using the Arch to store large stockpiles of ammunition and as a staging point for drones and snipers, so close to commuters and tourists, will dramatically worsen these public-safety harms and the risk of accidents.”

As planned, the arch would stand more than twice as high as the Lincoln Memorial and almost twice as high as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It would also exceed the height limitations established for safe airplane travel to and from Reagan National Airport.

“We have diligently and in good faith engaged in the review process, pointing out severe, unique, and wide-ranging negative impacts to the county and our residents,” Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said in a press release Thursday. “Despite these concerns and that process not being complete, it was recently, unilaterally, announced that the project will move forward anyway — entirely disregarding protocol and months of work. Enough is enough. We will do all we can to hold this administration accountable and to protect and serve the best interests of our community.”

The project previously faced pushback from Vietnam veterans, who filed a lawsuit in February, arguing the arch lacked congressional authorization and would obstruct the line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, deliberately created to symbolize the country’s post-Civil War reunification. That same group of veterans also filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order in September to block the administration from beginning excavation for the proposed 250-foot arch.

The arch is just one of several vanity projects proposed by Trump as he looks to significantly reshape the D.C. skyline under his presidency. Others include controversial renovations to the Reflecting Pool, the demolition of the White House’s East Wing and its Rose Garden, and the closure and renaming of the Kennedy Center, a project entangled in a months-long legal battle.

“The president is not allowed to bypass legal review requirements just because he wants to move quickly on his own whims, and NPS clearly violated the law by failing to conduct an adequate review of the arch project,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is working in partnership with the county board in its legal challenge. “At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, we don’t need vanity projects.”

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