The National Park Service said Friday it would temporarily close the park at the center of Washington’s historic LGBTQ neighborhood ahead of the city’s annual Pride weekend, moving forward with plans that local officials believed had been scrapped.

The temporary closure of Dupont Circle Park came at the request of the U.S. Park Police (USPP), the Park Service said in an order uploaded Friday to its website approving the installation of anti-scale fencing around the park’s perimeter through 6 p.m. EDT Sunday.

“Less restrictive measures will not suffice due to the security-based assessment of the USPP that this park area needs to be kept clear,” the Park Service said.

In a letter dated June 4, Park Police Maj. Frank Hilsher wrote to Kevin Griess, superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks, that the agency's closure request “is based solely on several previous years of assaultive, destructive and disorderly behavior exhibited in Dupont Circle during the DC Pride weekend.”

“The USPP maintains that a physical barrier effecting a full closure of Dupont Circle is necessary,” Hilsher wrote, to “secure the park, deter potential violence,........

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