Dan Snyder's wall still in dispute

Negotiations with Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder are delaying an environmental assessment launched in 2007 to determine the impacts of repairing a failed retaining wall on his River Road property, a Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park official told the Gazette on Monday.

National Park Service and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission officials are waiting on a fix to the retaining wall problem before Snyder plants more trees to replace the 130 he improperly removed from his property in 2004.

"Nobody wants to replace the trees until all of the issues have been resolved so the trees have a better chance of surviving," said Brian Carlstrom, deputy superintendent of the C&O Canal National Historical Park. Bringing in equipment to repair the wall might pose a threat to newly planted trees, he said.

"We've been working with the Snyders to try and develop an exchange of interests, and we're at a point now where we can't resolve it," Carlstrom said. "We presented them with two different options and currently they haven't accepted."

Karl Swanson, a spokesman for Snyder, declined to comment.