Community members air concerns about plans to use Justice Park as a parking lot for Justice HS

Justice High School PE students use the basketball court at Justice Park.

Fairfax County Public School and Park Authority officials have yet to explain to residents the process involved in their plans to pave a section of Justice Park to create a parking lot for Justice High School in Seven Corners.

Community members expressed their frustration about that during a March 11 listening session hosted by Fairfax County School Board Chair Ricardy Anderson (Mason District).

The parking lot is part of FCPS’s design for building a much-needed addition for Justice High School. The school doesn’t have any excess land so the addition would take up part of the school’s parking lot.

As a result, the basketball court at Justice Park would be relocated to make room for a parking lot with 60 to 70 spaces.

One of the biggest complaints among residents is the lack of community engagement. People said they were not informed about the parking lot and weren’t given an opportunity to comment.

About half of Justice Park is overgrown with invasive plants.

Several people complained that when the proposed addition was discussed at a Justice High School PTSA meeting the previous evening, FCPS officials left immediately after their presentation, before people had a chance to ask questions.

The parks and schools “have done nothing to reach out to our community,” said Kathleen Brown, the parent of a Justice student. [A letter to nearby property owners about the addition from BC Consultants doesn’t mention Justice Park.]

Related story: Plan to turn park space into parking lot angers residents

“This is not the way to make us feel our opinions are valued,” Brown said. “This cannot be done by a secret handshake” between FCPS and the Park Authority.”

“They say it is not a done deal,” said Whitney Redding of the Friends of Holmes Run group, but the plans for the addition are moving along. “It’s really hard to have questions until we know the process. What is the process and where does the public fit in?”

Residents are getting a runaround, with the Park Authority telling people to ask FCPS and vice versa, said Carol Turner, a resident of Ravenwood Park. “We don’t get a feeling that someone is in charge.”

“We are worried about losing any part of the park, especially for a parking lot,” Turner said.

“Adding insult to injury, all the things that were supposed to be in the park, we aren’t getting. Instead, they’re taking two acres away,” she said. The Master Plan approved in 2009 called for a network of trails connecting the eastern and western halves of the park and a garden area.

If the basketball court is relocated, the open play space would be lost.

Only half of the 17-acre park is usable. The rest is covered with a tangle of vegetation. Many nearby residents don’t even know that area is parkland.

“That park is an undiscovered jewel that could be an amazing resource,” Turner said. It’s in a densely populated area of Seven Corners, with many apartments nearby and very little green space.

Ann Bennett raised concerns about the integrity of the Justice Park Master Plan. Master plans for parks are developed with community input and are supposed to guide future improvements. Any changes require an amendment to the master plan.

Kathleen Brown brought up the “park sovereignty issue,” stating that if the Park Authority gives up parkland here, “any other park is fair game.”

“This is our park. We pay taxes,” Brown said. “Parks are a community resource. This is what makes the community desirable.”

The Ravenwood Park Citizens Association passed a resolution opposing a plan to shrink Justice Park, noted resident Mark Doehnert. Any attempt to eliminate parkland should go through the county’s Comprehensive Plan amendment process, he said.

Several people mentioned One Fairfax, noting that preserving the park would further Fairfax County’s goal to promote equity.

Other residents noted the park is adjacent to a Resource Protection Area, that paving more areas would exacerbate stormwater runoff, and that the land was once owned by African American families who were descendants of slaves.

PTSA President Barbara Burgess noted there was a community meeting in December but neither the principal nor PTSA were informed of that meeting.

Burgess is concerned that if the parking issue is not resolved, the addition might be stalled. The addition is sorely needed, as the school is overcrowded.

She urged county and school leaders to find another way to provide parking “without a vast intrusion into the park.”

The outdoor classroom at Justice Park.

Anderson agreed that the addition is needed and that alternatives to eliminating park space should be considered. Also, she said, the public needs to be better informed about the process and the timeline, and “we need to ensure we have robust community engagement.”

While the public officials at the meeting were invited to listen and not respond to the public’s concerns, they did have a few closing comments. Heather Diez, assistant director of design and construction at FCPS, said, “We are partners with the Park Authority and are working to be a good neighbor with the community.”

“Parks are very important to us,” said Sara Baldwin, deputy director of park operations at the Park Authority. “Want to work with you to protect as much of the park as we can while being good partners with the schools.”