The Justice Park sidewalk will start construction in June
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation is going ahead with constructing a $900,000 sidewalk at Justice Park, despite objections from the community.
Residents of Ravenwood Park, Ravenwood, and Lake Barcroft argue that the sidewalk is not needed, it would damage the park ecosystem, and it’s a waste of money that could be spent on more pressing projects.
Since residents first learned about the sidewalk last fall, they’ve been urging county officials to stop the project – but haven’t been able to make any progress.
Both Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez and Board Chair Jeffrey McKay have dismissed their concerns and declined to meet with them.
Related story: FCDOT to proceed with Justice Park sidewalk despite community opposition
FCDOT project manager Roderick Radzikowski and engineer Sonia Shahnaj met with residents at the park earlier this month to discuss the project.
The FCDOT officials said the sidewalk project will disrupt a 20-foot strip of land along Peace Valley Lane, reports Kathleen Brown, a resident of Ravenwood who has spent countless hours removing invasive plants from the park.
The 825 linear square-foot, five feet wide sidewalk would only extend from the cul-de-sac at the corner of Peace Valley Lane to the end of the service road at Justice High School across the street. It would not go all the way to Mansfield Road, so it would not provide a safe route for Justice students coming from that direction.
Construction will start in mid-June after the high school lets out for summer break.
Two huge trees that appear to be 60 to 80 years old and lots of small trees will be cut down. The FCDOT officials told Brown the county will plant six to eight trees to make up for that loss.
Brown and other volunteers, including Justice High School students, “have been working for seven years to plant native plants and get rid of invasives. All that work will be destroyed,” she said.
The last time FCDOT engaged with the community on the sidewalk was in 2019, Brown said. Meanwhile, Fairfax County Public Schools installed a new sidewalk on the other side of Peace Valley Lane in 2023, obviating the need for a sidewalk in the park.
When the sidewalk at Justice Park was first proposed, the estimated cost was $500,000; now it’s up to $900,000.
At the on-site meeting, Shahnaj said, “We’ve already spent the money on design and land acquisition, so it would be a waste not to finish it.”
Related story: Stream restoration project planned for Justice Park
After the meeting, Brown reached out to McKay to urge him to drop the plans for the sidewalk and not spend any more money on it.
In response, McKay’s Chief of Staff Amir Abu-El-Hawa wrote, “The Chairman recognizes that this issue has been a source of concern for some time. Following a meeting with Supervisor Jimenez, the Chairman will continue to defer to his office on TPP Project #161.”
Jimenez has not responded to Brown and her neighbors’ requests for a meeting.
In a commentary published in the Falls Church News-Press on March 18, Brown asks, “How is it that the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, a decade after a Seven Corners community request for ‘a’ sidewalk, spends extensive staff time, planning, construction mapping, and soil grading studies for this sidewalk with a pricetag of nearly $1 million in a county park without reaching out to the originally requesting community for a check in?”
“We’re really upset,” Brown said. “After the fight to prevent FCPS and the Park Authority from developing a parking lot at Justice Park – which the community won in 2021 – they promised to have meaningful community engagement.”
Related story: FCPS will not use Justice Park for parking
“The sidewalk is a wasteful and destructive piece of construction, pursued in an absurd way,” said Peter Jones, the lead volunteer on the Invasive Management Area at Justice Park.
“The utter lack of logical thinking, covering up poor coordination over three different project managers and six years of non-action is just utterly inexcusable,” Jones said.
“It’s like they looked around for an old project to spend extra money on, found this, did no due diligence, and cut and pasted a new date on the old 2018 project plans,” he said, “and then now go full steam ahead claiming any questions or pushback from the community is in bad faith.”
“I’m just outraged,” said Brown. With the county struggling to close a budget deficit, “they’re putting in a $1 million sidewalk. It’s a waste of money.”
Its in a long-standing plan, and outreach was done 7 years ago. Probably because its near a high school, where a sidewalk is especially important. And it doesn’t completely connect? Well pedestrian projects are often like that, you do one where you can, and eventually link up.
No I don’t live in FFX (one reason I left was poor walkability) but im nearby and have friends there. This reads like an editorial, not a news story. If you reached out to safe streets advocates, there’s no mention.
Feh.
How many times do we hear something like “despite objections by the community the board of superiors have decided to do it anyway..?”
But guess who’ll get voted in next time around anyway?
This is just as they did renaming JEB Stuart to Justice High!!!
Why is anyone surprised that the democrats in charge in Fairfax County care nothing about what residents have to say. The BOS Chairman so much as admitted that in the March 17th board meeting.
This level of bureaucracy is systemic within the county, having a different party in charge wouldn’t practically change anything
No JHS parking area. No pedestrian sidewalk.
It sounds like the neighbors want the public land used for private purposes. I suggest the county sell the land to the neighbors and then they can enjoy their area as a private park.
If the residents in vicinity of the park indicate they don’t need a $900K sidewalk and that money can be shaved off the budget or put to use elsewhere, it is a travesty that County Sup Jimenez and Board Chair Jeffrey McKay won’t meet and discuss. This kind of things is reminiscent when the county traded $2M country property to a developer for a $1 property…. Someone is probably getting enriched. And it’s not the taxpayers getting benefit.
When the County Board doesn’t heed the constituents, maybe Jimenez and McKay need to start looking for new jobs (not getting paid by the tax payers).
Lol. This reads like an Onion article. “Old man yells at clouds”
Fairfax County needs a truly independent Inspector General to look into such waste of taxpayer funds and report it to the public, especially in view of the county’s $131 million budget deficit. The existing Auditor to the Board is not enough as that office can only investigate programs that the Board tells it it can look at. How’s that for the fox guarding the chicken coop? How can a jurisdiction the size of Fairfax County, with an annual budget of over $11 billion not have an IG? Montgomery County Maryland has one with only
a slightly smaller budget, $8.6 billion. The City of Richmond has one with a budget of $3.5 billion. Miami Dade County, FL, has one with a $12.7 billion budget. Cook County, IL has one with $9.9 billion budget. Although Loudoun and Prince William Counties only have an internal auditor, their budgets are less than half that of Fairfax County. Who knows what other wasteful spending is going on in Fairfax when there’s barely any real review yet citizens are told there are always deficits and budget cuts needed. And looking back a few years, how was Tom Davis as Board Chairman able to able to manage the Fairfax County budget so well that in recognition of those successful efforts, in 1994 Fairfax County was selected as the best financially managed county in the entire United States by City and State Magazine! Do you think it could get such an award today?
I’m not surprised that VDOT, FCDOT, and the Supervisors do not want to stop this project. There is a similar project, now costing close to $200,000,000 to build 10 foot wide shared use paths on a 3 mile stretch of Braddock Rd. The justification for that project is weak. It will likely have unintended adverse effect on pedestrian and bicycle safety. Sidewalks and paths already exist on much of this stretch as shown on the VDOT project webpage: https://www.vdot.virginia.gov/projects/northern-virginia-district/braddock-road-multimodal-improvements-in-fairfax-county/ It will destroy acres of trees that provide environmental benefits to all of us and especially the homes that are adjacent to Braddock Rd. The Supervisors are now even proposing to disband the County Tree Commission. Who benefits from these projects?
Picket Jimenez’ office! It is unforgiveable that he won’t follow what his constituents want and save money besides.
WTOP:
https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2026/03/how-every-fairfax-co-supervisor-feels-about-possible-tysons-casino-project/
Jimenez:
Declined to comment through a spokesperson.
Who, besides a gov’t entity, would spend $1,090 per square FOOT on a sidewalk? That is disgraceful especially when the sidewalk goes nowhere besides taking away property from a neighborhood park. Our county supervisor, Mr. Jimenez, REFUSES to meet with or discuss on the phone, the reasonable objections to spending $900,000 on a sidewalk that isn’t needed, isn’t wanted, and isn’t necessary. Fairfax County is looking for ways to balance the budget when this is an obvious way to save money.
I love Annandale but the one thing that I do find baffling is the seemingly universal opposition to sidewalks. Moving from DC to Annandale was a bit of a culture shock walking wise. I would welcome more sidewalks/pedestrian improvements for the area.
Just saying – – it might be interesting to know who got the contract and if they are campaign contributors. Just saying.
We cannot wait to vote out Jimenez the Menace!
An assessment of existing conditions should have been conducted and would have revealed a sidewalk already installed on the high school side of the road in 2023 and paid for by FCPS.
This expenditure for a superfluous sidewalk is outrageous. Other areas of Mason District and the County are pleading for sidewalks.
The lack of engagement by elected County officials is a disgrace.
Would anyone oppose a sidewalk beside Old Columbia Pike in the section between Lincolnia Road and Sleepy Hollow Road? Try walking it sometime before answering.
Walk it every day – it’s generally pretty dangerous, and always trashed. Would love to meet Mr. Red Solo Cup, a thoughtless litterbug without 3 brain cells to rub together. The Fairfax County Trails Master Plan used to have a sidewalk shown on this section, but it would be tough project due to the road be an old-fashioned ditch section with not a lot of extra right of way. Heck, it would probably cost over a million dollars! Wait, based on the sidewalk in this article, probably more like five million. Don’t hold your breath WWinVA.
If you haven’t hit the first link above to the previous stories you may have missed an important fact: Fairfax County Public Schools built a new sidewalk on the opposite side of the street in 2023 – making this sidewalk totally unnecessary.
So odd that they’re choosing to put in a sidewalk now, right before the stream restoration project is planned for the creek in Justice Park. Why is there no coordination between teams to strategize on a complete plan for the site? Why build a sidewalk now just to destroy it in two years with bulldozers? This is not a smart use of taxpayer money.
We in Mason District are fortunate to have Annandale Today (AT) to provide excellent journalism on the many important issues, events, and developments in our area. The coverage is detailed, accurate, and up to date and keeps us well informed; in too many instances, we would not know what’s going on in our community without AT.
Case in point is this article about the Justice Park sidewalk. Residents weren’t informed about this project and only found out about it in November when invasive management volunteers discovered the construction tape. As the article states, this isn’t the first time the community was not informed about a proposal that directly affects our community. Despite the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (BoS)claims and promises of community engagement, in far too many cases, the BoS makes important decisions without any outreach to the community affected and unfortunately, this is also the case for us residents in Mason District.
In his regular Mason Matters newsletter (dated March 20th), in a segment entitled “Listening, Sharing, and Connecting with Our Community” Supervisor Jimenez stated,
“I had a great time talking with residents of the Glen Forest Civic Association to discuss community priorities, hear concerns, and answer questions. These conversations are an important part of staying connected with neighbors and ensuring that local government is responsive to the needs of the community. From sharing updates on ongoing initiatives to listening to residents’ ideas, gatherings like this strengthen the partnership between elected officials and the people they serve.”
However, despite his claims of partnership with the people he serves, that has certainly not been the experience of our community on several important issues. Not only has Sup. Jimenez failed to share updates on many initiatives, he has not listened to our concerns, and his failure to even meet with us is an indication that he doesn’t care about the people he is supposed to serve. This AT article about the $1 million Sidewalk to Nowhere is just the most recent example of his failure to partner with our community. As this AT article states, despite many requests from community residents, he has refused even to meet with us, his Mason District constituents, to discuss our concerns about why this sidewalk is no longer needed and will harm the Justice Park–a valued green oasis that many dedicated volunteers have worked hard to protect for years. So much for community outreach and partnership. Once again, our supervisor is not standing up for us constituents.
Sounds like this is not only egregious planning without understanding “facts on the ground” changed after the community fought off the paving of a 2-acre parking lot. Now this appears to be retribution for ann environmentally conscious community for protecting parkland for many residents who live in apartments and very much value the picnic pavillion and need for open space for mental, physical and spiritual well being!
Who is behind this paving of a sidewalk on top of a stream restoration anyway? FCPS? FCPA? FCDOT? Who would spend kind of money for a sidewalk which doesn’t provide any reach over to Mansfield Rd?
I’ve advocated for Supervisor Jimenez’ office to address REAL concerns for FCDOT and VDOT for years. Alas, his office only gives us to go-around. Change is needed.
Just to clarify, those of us who believe in protecting rare parkland and promoting fiscal responsibility are NOT opposed to sidewalks. We are opposed to costly redundant sidewalks that lead to nowhere, financial waste, county departments working at cross-purposes, and the blatant inaction by elected officials to respond to community concerns. (Contrary to FCDOT’s mission of enhancing “connectivity,” their proposed sidewalk dead-ends at the Justice Park service road, and doesn’t connect to Mansfield Road. If built, students and pedestrians would need to step into the street to reach Mansfield.) There are plenty of sidewalk connectivity projects in Mason District and elsewhere in Fairfax County that are sorely needed, especially because they DO enhance connectivity. You can see many of these projects here: Just click on Mason District projects. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/transportation/bike-walk/100-million-funding/prioritization. This sidewalk is a wasteful misuse of transportation funds.