The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's board of directors could decide by October whether to move its headquarters.

Board members will open a three-month window for considering any relocation offers the authority receives from local jurisdictions after Metro adopts criteria for evaluating the proposals. The criteria could be set as soon as next month, when Metro General Manager John Catoe will brief the board on the market value of Metro's offices, the transit system's space requirements and other criteria for judging proposals.

Metro has not formally solicited offers for its headquarters near Judiciary Square and the Verizon Center, but District officials have tried to woo the system to a new location for several years. Most recently, District Mayor Adrian Fenty's office submitted an unsolicited offer in April for Metro to move to a new building near its Anacostia station as part of the city's efforts to revitalize that area.

Several board members raised serious issues with that plan Thursday, but city officials stressed the provisions are malleable.

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WMATA's chief concern with the District's $108 million incentive package is that it does not include money to move the system's operations and control center to a new location. The offer does feature $68 million for a new headquarters building and $40 million toward building a tunnel linking the Metro Center and Gallery Place stations.

The center, which controls and monitors all system operations and communications, could remain in the current location, move to another Metro facility or come to the new headquarters in the city's proposal. Relocating the facility, however, is expected to cost many millions of dollars because of the high-technology communications equipment involved.

"Generally, you want the control center to be part of your building, but we are trying to be open minded," Catoe said.

The District's offer of $40 million toward the Metro Center-Gallery Place tunnel also drew criticism because Metro has never decided whether to construct the underground walkway.

Many Orange Line passengers choose to walk a few blocks to Metro Center instead of riding a Red Line train, especially after events at the Verizon Center, but Metro has labeled many other projects as higher priorities.

"It isn't $40 million for whatever this board think is its next important project," said Chris Zimmerman, an Arlington County board member. "It would be $40 million for a project that the District has decided we should do."

jrogalsky@dcexaminer.com