Viewpoint: A second attempt to create parking at Justice Park
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| The basketball court in Justice Park with the school in the background. |
By Nazir Bhagat
Dec. 10 was the last day to respond to a survey about whether to build 67 parking spaces at Justice Park.
School Board Member Ricardy Anderson (Mason) issued the survey, even though the proposal to build the parking lot had been rejected by the Fairfax County Park Authority and Fairfax County Public Schools earlier this year.
The results of her survey will be presented to the Park Authority, with a claim that the community was insufficiently engaged during the run-up to its decision.
Anderson claims she is responding to complaints from teachers that Justice High School provides insufficient parking, forcing many of them to park illegally and be punished with frequent parking tickets. She also believes that to retain good teachers and staff, the school should continue to offer them free parking.
Hence, to help the teachers, staff, and students, the survey asks people in the Justice High School pyramid to choose between these two options:
Proposal 1 – Build a parking lot for 67 cars on parkland and make several improvements to Justice Park.
Proposal 2 – No parking lot in the park and no improvements to the park.
The survey, by reducing the issue to a choice between building more parking on Justice Park or not, detracts from the broader task of working with FCPS and other stakeholders on a plan to ensure that commuting to Justice High remains affordable, offers flexibility and multiple alternatives, and the commuting time is reasonably short.
Related story: Survey seeks input on parking lot in Justice Park – even though that proposal has been rejected
There are two additional problems with the survey:
(1) The survey was sent directly to the Justice pyramid – the people who would benefit most from the additional parking spaces – but not to others in the community, which includes minority and immigrant residents for whom the park is a scarce amenity.
Community residents who are not teachers, parents, or students in the pyramid had to specifically request the survey, which had the effect of suppressing their response rate.
To correct this bias, and get representative community participation, the survey must be sent to all the residents in Mason District that live, say, in a two-mile radius of the park. Public outreach should also be conducted on the issue.
(2) Asking people to choose between the two proposals offers a false choice, indicating that the park improvements can only be approved and funded by the county if the 67 parking spaces are built at Justice Park.
Once we reject the survey as biased and incorrectly framed, we can focus on finding out how long the actual commute is for Justice High School staff and students, how best to reduce the commute times, and, if additional parking is needed, how much is needed, and how best to provide and allocate it.
For context, it should be noted that Justice has more students from lower-income homes and less than half its students may be of driving age. While these facts raise some equity issues, they also imply that few students can drive or can afford to drive to school.
More important, the majority of Mason District lies within a two-mile radius of Justice High School. Many other high schools in Fairfax County – including Langley, Oakton, Marshall, Mount Vernon, Hayfield, South County, and Westfield – serve a much more spread-out attendance area.
While Fairfax County’s parking ratio is three spaces per 10 students, the parking ratio for Justice High should be closer to that of similarly situated high schools, such as those in Arlington County, where only one parking space is required for every 10 students. By that standard, Justice already has ample parking to meet its projected need.
Related story: Fairfax County Public Schools to seek rezoning and parking waiver for Justice HS addition
Furthermore, with increasing global warming, the county’s commitment to cut emissions, and the availability of apps for sharing rides and accessing e-scooters, we need to promote more alternatives to cars.
Hence, rather than subsidize only those who commute to Justice High by car and not those who use other means of transport, FCPS should provide all teachers and staff with a transportation subsidy, but require drivers to pay for parking.
Finally, if additional parking is still needed, the streets around the school are less busy during school hours and have plenty of capacity for street parking. The Justice HS community could work with Mason Supervisor Penny Gross and the Fairfax County Department of Transportation to designate some of the spaces for permit-parking for school commuters to ensure that teachers are not ticketed.
In the end, the more parking spaces you create, and the cheaper they are, the more people will drive instead of using alternative modes of commuting.
Thus, the proposal to build more parking spaces at Justice Park should be rejected in favor of a more comprehensive approach to improving the commute to Justice High School that is more equitable, preserves open space, and reduces our reliance on cars and hydrocarbons that contribute to global warming.
We held a vote, my side lost, so now I want a do-over. Very Trumpy vibes from Ricardy Anderson here.
Not at all like a previous candidate and party that spent 4 years citing baseless, unprovable allegations, spent 10's of millions of dollars, went thru two useless impeachment trials while not advancing one piece of useful legislation all because they lost an election they thought was theirs. What a inane, useless comment.
Sorry the truth hurts you so much. I agree with you that, as far as I know, Anderson hasn't (yet) spent tens of millions of dollars on this effort to overturn the results of a fair vote because she doesn't like the outcome. But other than that…
The survey has again spent money on something that isn't an option. Time and energy for all those being forced to review this survey. Stop wasting our time and money, get the zoning changes done to the property that is the school. If you want more parking, the laws of eminent domain for public good exist, as does the idea of a garage.
While I agree that the survey sent out was deeply flawed, I also find some of the suggestions here in this opinion piece outlandish.
The primary reason for parking at a school is for the employees. To force employees (teachers) that work at Justice to pay for parking or otherwise ride share when no such requirements have been made at any other school in the area seems quite far fetched. What about teachers and staff that need to move between multiple schools or sites in one day? Beyond the practical absurdity of the demand, what kind of detrimental impact would this have on teachers wanting to come to teach at Justice?
While students needing access to vehicles for work/study arrangements is also an issue, the issues with staff are reason enough to ensure that the option brought forth doesn’t completely throw in the towel on parking.
I once again request that everyone consider a middle ground option. One that does not involve nearly the kind of intrusion into park land that was called for in option 1 and would still require FCPS to re-zone, but would still make progress on meeting the needs of its teachers, staff, and students that need parking.
This kind from middle ground option makes sense, when you couch it in the terms you have used, but it seems like there is an unsaid advocacy for using some parkland. That doesn't seem like a middle ground to me. And it seems a bit unfair / irrational to blame those of us who want no park land appropriated for the school, for the schools immediate failings which seem to be caused by long term planning failures. If FCPS' inability to get this done using its own resources is rewarded by just taking from other social services, then we'll just have this same debate in 20 years when the school needs more parking or whatever, and has failed to adequately plan, and they will just want more of the park. Until Justice starts talking strictly and only about solutions in it's existing footprint, they are not offering anything the abutting community should support.
Parking must be free and readily available for teachers. Build a garage, or find a better solution than taking away acres of parkland.
What, exactly, occurs in the strip of land between the road and the tennis courts? And the land on the edge of the passive open space where the basketball court will be moved? This proposal does so little damage to the way the park is used that the arguments against it are not at all persuasive in my opinion. Tennis can continue to be played, soccer balls can continue to be kicked in the field, basketball can still be played (or badminton, per the photo), and, well, heck, the strip of sloped lawn everyone traverses to get to the rest of the park will have an additional strip of asphalt, which actually makes access to the park safer as you will not have to open your door into the narrow street and cross the street to get to the park. Oh, the travesty!
The parkland that are thinking of using is already unusable – completely overgrown. Using it for parking is not "taking away parkland" since no one can use it for anything now anyway! Plus – and it must be nice to be a stay at home – some of us can not drive our kids back and forth to school, after school activities and work. My kid needs to drive to school – because it's the only way he can then get to a sport 6 miles away followed by work.
You say your kid needs to drive to school in order to then get to a sport 6 miles away and then to work? Can your child not take a bus to/from school, and then take their vehicle from home to their after school commitments?
There are reasons for the school to have adequate parking, but your argument was not a very convincing one.
In our analysis, interviews and observations, we found that the land of open space where the basketball court would have been relocated, the large open play field is about the size of a football, soccer, and frisbee field). It is used park land used today for playing games like soccer and cricket, ball, frisbee, for egg hunts, learning to bicycle, dog walking, running around, and kite flying. Historically, that land has been used as open space recreation since the inception of the park, as for many years it was part of a second baseball field. We also found “Rectangular fields” are under an adopted county parks standard – and even though the field is not perfectly flat or striped, it serves many rectangular field purposes, besides natural purposes. It also serves as open space, and preserving open space And of course the basketball court is also used and developed park land used for basketball as well as events.
And in fact, planning objectives for the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan Baileys Planning District that includes Justice Park and High School include “encourage the creation of additional parks, open space and recreation areas and acquire additional acreage in environmentally sensitive areas as part of the Environmental Quality Corridor program.”
Also, per the definition of a “park” in the Virginia Park Authorities Act, which is “public parks and recreation areas as the terms are generally used,” a park can include woods and forests. The woods part of Justice Park have been part of its plan since the park’s inception. So the woods are also used parts of the park. As the Fairfax County invasive species report and visual inspections of the park show, the most significant problem invasives is at the edge of the forest. However, the core forest itself is in good condition, other than the stream bed which has been badly damaged from high school runoff for decades. And volunteer efforts combined with Park Authority funded efforts are making a significant impact on invasive removal.
I'm not sure if this reply is advocating for or against the parking, but the majority of the field will still be there. The open field space goes from 1.5 acres to 1.36 acres. The forest isn't touched. Trails are improved. Invasives are removed. An underwater stormwater facility is added. A nicer outdoor classroom will be built. The park is improved and the teachers and students at Justice get their MUCH NEEDED addition. FPCS doesn't have limitless funds to build a parking garage. There are 198 schools in FCPS. I don't understand how people can keep talking about "equity" and ignore the real needs of thousand of students and the 200+ staff across the street who use the facility every day vs the rarely used (sorry but it is!) park across the street. If you the field is the dealbreaker, then don’t move the basketball court but build some parking between the tennis courts and the street. There are ways to make a parking lot more green. The addition has already been delayed and they need to get moving!
There is no reason to delay the school addition. Just do not build parking on Justice Park—-find an alternative and /or get a variance.
When you give a transportation subsidy to all the school staff and charge for parking, you end up with a solution that disadvantages no one and promotes alternatives to communizing by car. Nazir Bhagat
Teachers and school staff should not have to pay one cent for parking at the school they work at, or have to futz around with subsidies. Why you are even suggesting this is ludicrous. I don't care what the students or visitors pay to park there, but don't even go there for education staff.